CHAPTER IX.

Election of the Lord Mayor.--Movements of the Pretender.--Conduct

of Lord Townshend in Ireland.--Pensions.--Money Bills.--Lord

Rockingham ceases Parliamentary Opposition.--The Army is composed

of Scotchmen.--Sir James Lowther loses his Cause.--Court Party

Predominant.--Private Distresses of the King.--Illness of the

Princess Dowager and the Duke of Gloucester.--The Duke of

Cumberland marries Colonel Lutterell’s Sister.--Her Character

and Family.--Public Opinion on the Marriage.--Anecdote of Sir

Robert Walpole.--The King’s Treatment of the Duke.--The Duke of

Gloucester’s Health Improves.--Death of the Princess Dowager.

1771.

On the 12th of September died, after a very short indisposition, Mr.

Robert Wood, a man whose character was much brighter in the literary

than in the political world.

In October came on the election of the Lord Mayor. Sawbridge and

Townshend, the late Sheriffs, declared themselves candidates. The

Court were afraid publicly to interfere; but they excited the

wealthier merchants, who groaned under the ascendant of the upstart

tribunes, to make a stand against the popular faction. The idea was

eagerly embraced, and one Nash, a senior Alderman, and very opulent

grocer,[207] was set up against the two demagogues. Townshend’s friends

tried to persuade him to waive his pretensions in favour of Sawbridge,

that the popular interest might not be divided; but acquiescence and

prudence were not the tone of that Opposition. Nash was grievously

insulted and almost killed in his passage to the election; but, in the

Hall, Wilkes himself was more the object of attacks, both Sawbridge

and Townshend reviling him, and the latter hinting at his insertion of

abusive paragraphs in the newspapers. Wilkes challenged them both to

prove their accusations. Townshend equivocated; Sawbridge denied his

having alluded to Wilkes. These squabbles, and the outrageous behaviour

of Captain Allen, who vomited out invectives against the House of

Commons[208] on his own case, raised such heats and dissensions, that

Nash was elected Mayor, and Townshend driven out of the court with

hisses. Between him and Wilkes a war of words and libels and giving

the lie ensued; Wilkes, with impudent humour, abused Townshend for

having reflected illiberally on the Princess of Wales in the House of

Commons. On entering on his shrievalty, Wilkes canvassed for popularity

by ordering the irons of criminals to be knocked off during their

trials, and by allowing all persons to enter the court without paying

for admittance; but this reformation created so much crowding and

disturbance, that the magistrates were forced to interpose. To balance

these attempts, Townshend refused, as he had often promised, to pay the

land-tax for Middlesex, on the pretended plea that the county was not

legally represented; but his goods being distrained, nobody chose to be

a confessor in the same cause.

At the beginning of the month the Pretender suddenly disappeared, in

the most secret manner, and with scarce any attendance. As France

had lately sent the Marquis de Viomenil, an able general, with

sixty officers, to Poland, it was supposed that she favoured that

adventurer in his pursuit of a crown that tottered on the head of the

wearer, and to which Stuart, by his mother Sobieski, was allied. The

first news learned of him was, that he was at Paris, protected by

the Duc d’Aiguillon, who had always wished well to his cause. This

was, however, soon denied; and it was pretended that the Marquis de

Fitzjames, grandson of the Duke of Berwick, had received orders from

Versailles to re-conduct the Prince, his cousin, to Genoa. In the

streets of that city chance gave him and the Duke of Gloucester to

meet. They bowed, turned back, and both smiled. During the Pretender’s

eclipse, the Cardinal of York being questioned on the motive of his

brother’s journey, replied enigmatically, “He is gone whither he should

have gone a year ago;” a sentence not understood till six months after,

when it came out that Stuart had gone to Paris to see the Princess of

Stolberg, whom he married there by proxy in the March following,--no

contradiction of the idea that D’Aiguillon favoured the House of

Stuart. He had long countenanced the Jesuits, though the emergence of

party now obliged him, in opposition to the Chancellor, to take the

contrary part.

In Ireland the scene was very turbulent. Lord Townshend’s conduct

was equally insolent and preposterous. He set the whole nation at

defiance; shut himself up with a low woman and her friends, and at his

own table publicly ridiculed all parties, declaring he knew he could,

and declaring he would buy a majority. Nor was this silly profligacy

confined within the palace. He wrote satiric ballads on friends and

foes, and distributed them without reserve. To the shame of the Irish

Parliament, and to the dishonour of the English Government, that

still supported such a buffoon, a list of pensions to the amount of

25,000_l._ a-year was sent by him to London, and though delayed, was

not rejected. Still as the English Administration demurred on the

demand, they who had promised their votes for promises, not seeing

the conditions performed, threw their weight into the opposite scale,

lest the Viceroy, profiting of their acquiescence, should afterwards

frustrate their hopes. These fluctuations, and the acrimony of the rest

of the Opposition, who were men of parts superior to those employed

by the Lord-Lieutenant, cost the Castle a question early in the

session; nor were its advocates prepared to support even the address

on the speech; for the capricious ruler had neither sent a copy of

the speech to England, nor communicated it to many in office. It was

consequently composed with his Lordship’s usual want of judgment,

and gave much offence by charging the deficiencies of the revenue

on the improvements of the country, whereas they flowed notoriously

from the late long prorogation of Parliament. This defeat alarmed the

Court of England, but instead of recalling the culpable Viceroy, they

granted him his full catalogue of pensions, excepting only 2000_l._

a-year to his secretary, Sir George Maccartney, who being son-in-law

of Lord Bute, it was not thought advisable to furnish so unpopular

a topic to either country.[209] The confirmation of their pensions

soon recalled the stragglers, and procured a considerable majority

to the Castle; but the debates were so long, and were followed by

such zealous libations, that Dr. Lucas, the Wilkes of Ireland, fell

a victim to his patriotic fatigues. Still the wanton intemperance of

Lord Townshend’s tongue and conduct, and a further stretch of authority

in erecting new wards of revenue for the sake of multiplying offices,

once more turned the scale, and by the end of November he lost a

question against a majority of 46, who voted that it appeared to the

House by evidence that the former boards of Custom and Excise had been

sufficient, and that there was no want of more commissioners. Many of

the placed voted against the Castle. The late pension to Dyson had

given much additional disgust, being a formal breach of the King’s

promise given by the Duke of Northumberland that no more pensions for

terms of years should be granted but on extraordinary occasions: and

the Irish Attorney-General being asked what such occasions were, had

replied, On such cases as Sir Edward Hawke’s and Prince Ferdinand’s.

Was Dyson’s pension a violation of that engagement, or was such a

prostitute tool of office a proper pendent to the victor of the Spanish

navy, or to the hero of Minden? Those ill-humours, it was feared,

would induce the House of Commons not to send over the money bills;

yet so great was the attachment of the Irish Whigs to the English

Government, that they did transmit the bills hither, content with

resolving, by a majority of one vote only, that they would make no

provision for Dyson’s pension. A fresh indiscretion, negligence, or

trick, turned the scale once more against the Castle. Two copies of

all bills, for fear of miscarriage, are always sent by different roads

to Dublin. In one copy of the returned bills which happened to arrive

first, the English Attorney-General, to whom they were referred, had

omitted the word “cottons.” The Irish Commons, who deny the Crown’s

right of altering a money bill, flamed at the omission, and though the

exact copy arrived four days after the former, and was offered to the

House by the Lord-Lieutenant, the tenacious Commons adhered to their

rejection. The English Government immediately abandoned the alteration,

but, to preserve the King’s pretensions to a power of altering a money

bill, they changed the monosyllable _and_ for _or_, which was accepted

in Ireland, and returned time enough to save the expiration of the

annual duties; yet the time pressed so much, that orders were sent

to the Custom-house officers at Dublin, to plead the recess for the

Christmas holidays, as an excuse for not clearing several ships then in

port, who, as the annual bill was on the point of expiring, would not

have paid the duties. It was marvellous in the eyes of most men that

after such repeated mismanagement Lord Townshend should be suffered to

retain his government. Many imputed it to his favour with Lord Bute;

yet his daily insults to Sir George Maccartney, the Earl’s son-in-law,

gave him little title to that patronage. I believe two other causes

contributed to Lord Townshend’s impunity: one, the difficulty of

finding a successor, every man of character or prudence dreading the

abuse or the expense attendant on that post; the other was the King’s

satisfaction in being able to govern one of his kingdoms, at least, by

so worthless a Minister--for to be able to do wrong to a whole nation

is the flowering time of prerogative. The Earl of Shannon was soon

after gained over by hereditary corruption, and Lord Townshend remained

triumphant.

I shall briefly recapitulate a few incidents that fell out in the

remainder of the year, and then close these long Memoirs with two

events, of which, one was a royal marriage of the most extraordinary

complexion, the other a royal death, which put an end to an influence

that had given colour to all the troubles of the present reign.

Lord Rockingham and his friends, wearied out by continual defeats, the

consequences, in a good measure, of their own weak conduct, determined

to sit still and give over parliamentary opposition, unless any new

invasions of the constitution by the Crown should awaken the people

to resistance, or foreign troubles should give an opportunity of

attacking the Court by its becoming unpopular; for one of the evils of

bad government is, that even the best men are apt to regard foreign

disgraces as small misfortunes, when they serve to check the insolence

of domestic tyranny. Yet might war be an additional evil; success

would advance the power of the Crown, and such unrelaxed attention to

recruiting the army with Scotchmen had been kept up, that the King

had reason to depend on blind obedience from a great proportion of

it. The marines were almost all Scots. The haughty English were too

much at their ease to enlist in that despised service. The Scots, with

not less pride, were never stubborn to their interest. A new occasion

gave handle to reviving abuse on that nation and on their countryman

Lord Mansfield. One Eyre, a wealthy citizen, had been detected in

stealing writing-paper from public offices, was tried and convicted

of that mean pilfering. He had married a Scottish woman, and three of

her kinsmen solicited the Chief Justice to allow him to be bailed,

which was granted. This partiality occasioning clamour, the three Scots

avowed and defended in the public papers what they had done, which but

increased the scandal and redoubled the abuse on their nation. It was a

greater triumph to the discontented, that the cause between Sir James

Lowther and the Duke of Portland for Inglewood Forest being at last

heard, the former was non-suited, his counsel, Sir Fletcher Norton, now

Speaker, having forgotten, in drawing the grant, to insert a reserve

of the third part of the rent to the Crown. But these were trifling

consolations. The Court was predominant at home; Wilkes was fallen,

the City was recovering from the dominion of the popular tribunes,

the Rockingham party was crest-fallen, and now came news that Spain

had actually restored to us the Falkland Islands, which it had been

doubted she ever would surrender. Thus was the King at peace both at

home and abroad, after a vexatious and ignominious struggle for near

eleven years. It seemed an additional promise of tranquillity to him

that his mother, who, by the bad education she had given him, and the

bias which she impressed by her creatures on his counsels, was now

known to be dying; and though she had lost much of her influence, she

retained enough over his awe of her, to perplex his measures and throw

uncertainty over the duration of his Ministries. At this very period

such a storm of private calamities burst on his head as few kings ever

experienced at once. Part of them touched his pride, and accordingly

penetrated deep; he had a happy insensibility that surmounted the rest

without an effort.

The malignant humour in the blood of the Princess Dowager had fallen

on her throat, and though her fortitude was invincible and her secrecy

and reserve invariable, the disorder could no longer be concealed. She

could swallow but with great difficulty, and not enough to maintain

life long. At times her sufferings and her struggles to hide them

were so much beyond her strength, that she frequently fainted, and

was thought dead. Yet would she not allow she was ill, even to her

children; nor would she suffer a single physician or surgeon to inspect

her throat, trusting herself solely to a German page who had some

medical knowledge: and going out to take the air, long after it was

expected that she would die in her coach. Her danger was publicly known

by the beginning of November, on the fifth of which month, when her

death was hourly expected, an express arrived from Leghorn, that her

son the Duke of Gloucester was at the point of death there, and it was

concluded by that time dead. He had gone to a warmer climate in search

of health, and having passed by sea from Genoa to Leghorn, had fallen

into a diarrhœa, attended by every bad symptom.

The very next day it became public that the Duke of Cumberland had, on

the first of the month, retired to Calais with a widow, Mrs. Horton,

whom he had married, and had notified his wedding to the King. What

was the astonishment of mankind, what the mortification of the King

and Princess, and what the triumph of Wilkes, when it came out that

this new Princess of the Blood, was own sister of the famous Colonel

Lutterell, the tool thrust by the Court into Wilkes’s seat for

Middlesex! Could punishment be more severe than to be thus scourged by

their own instrument? And how singular the fate of Wilkes, that new

revenge always presented itself to him when he was sunk to the lowest

ebb!

The Duke of Cumberland, after having been exposed to the derision of

mankind by his foolish letters, by his absurd conduct in his intrigue,

and by his pusillanimity on the detection, had added perfidy to

ridicule, and abandoned his victim to her shame. He had next engaged

openly in an intrigue with another married woman, a very handsome wife

of a timber-merchant; and it was uncertain which was most proud of the

honour, the husband or the wife. But they had not long displayed their

triumph in all public places, before the restless Duke seeking new

diversions, was made a more substantial conquest of at Brighthelmstone

by Mrs. Horton, who had for many months been dallying with his passion,

till she had fixed him to more serious views than he had intended.

She was daughter of Simon Lutterell, Lord Irnham, and had married a

gentleman of fortune, with whom she had been in love; and had the

misfortune of losing an only child, an infant daughter, and her

husband within a fortnight of each other, still covering her grief

for the first to conceal the misfortune from the last. She was rather

pretty than handsome, and had more the air of a woman of pleasure than

of a woman of quality, though she was well made, was graceful, and

unexceptionable in her conduct and behaviour. But there was something

so bewitching in her languishing eyes, which she could animate to

enchantment if she pleased, and her coquetry was so active, so varied,

and yet so habitual, that it was difficult not to see through it, and

yet as difficult to resist it. She danced divinely, and had a great

deal of wit, but of the satiric kind; and, as she had haughtiness

before her rise, no wonder she claimed all the observance due to her

rank after she became Duchess of Cumberland. It had been believed

that she would marry General Smith, a very handsome well-built young

man; but glory was her passion, and she sacrificed her lover to it,

as she had never sacrificed her virtue to her lover. Thus in herself

she was unexceptionable--at least, superior to the frailty of her sex,

if not above its little ambition. From her family, though ancient,

she drew many disadvantages. Her ancestors had been noted and long

odious in Ireland for treachery, villany, and arrogance. Her father

did not retrieve the honour of his blood, and though very brave in his

person, and tolerably brutal, had every other failure of his race.

Nor was he happier in his own issue. Not intending to return to his

native country, Ireland, he had given up his house there to his son,

but changing his mind, went thither. His son shut both his father and

mother out of the mansion house, and was countenanced by his brothers

and sisters,--a scene of vexation that pierced the mother’s heart, and

threw her into religious melancholy. But to the King the most grievous

part of the affliction was the connection with Colonel Lutterell,

and the satisfaction it must give to the friends of the constitution

to see the invasion of their privileges punished by the same hand by

which they had been attacked; for it was soon known that Mrs. Horton’s

brothers had been privy to the matrimonial transaction between the Duke

and their sister. The Duke’s flight to Calais with his bride spoke as

little heroism as he had exerted on former occasions, and showed how

little consultation he had held on the validity of his marriage; yet

it proved indissoluble, the royal family being expressly excepted out

of the late Lord Hardwicke’s Marriage Act. That proud legislator had

indeed inserted them; but the late Duke of Cumberland and Lord Holland,

in order to traverse Hardwicke, had represented to the late King that

it was an indignity to the Princes of the Blood to be levelled with the

mass of his subjects, and the haughty Monarch had ordered them to be

erased out of the bill, saying, “I will not have my family laid under

those restraints.”

The King, Queen, and Princess Dowager were beyond measure enraged at

this degradation of their house; but the misfortune was regarded with

indifference or ridiculed by almost every one else. Yet though the

King was not pitied, no indulgence was shown to the Duke; even the

Opposition giving him up as Lutterell’s sister had been the object

of his choice. The zealous--that is, the servile courtiers were loud

in their condemnation. Even the placid and plausible Lord Barrington

pronounced that the new Princess deserved to lose her head,--a wretched

imitation of Lord Clarendon’s[210] outrageous strain of affectation,

who pretended to demand the trial and execution of his own daughter

for marrying the Duke of York. The Duchess of Buckingham, natural

daughter of James the Second, a steady and active Jacobite, observing

Sir Robert Walpole’s partiality to his natural daughter, Lady Mary,

sent for him, and asked him if he recollected what had not been thought

too great a reward to Lord Clarendon for restoring the royal family?

He pretended not to understand her. She said, Was not the Duke of York

allowed to marry his daughter? Sir Robert smiled, but told her he was

content with the honours he had attained. He little thought his natural

granddaughter would obtain a rank he declined for his natural daughter!

The Duke of Cumberland’s marriage was, indeed, a heavy blow on Lady

Waldegrave, and seemed to cut off all hopes of the King’s permitting

the Duke of Gloucester to acknowledge her for his wife. It might

even inspire the King with the thought of, or furnish him with an

excuse for, breaking such marriages. At the best it would be a great

drawback on her dignity. The honour became less valuable when shared

with Lutterell’s sister; and though hitherto all the world had paid

her distinguished regard, and, from her singular piety, virtue, and

propriety of behaviour, had concurred in believing her married, her

situation became more problematic when Mrs. Horton assumed the title of

Duchess of Cumberland, and she did not dare to wear that of Duchess of

Gloucester.

It was still more remarkable that every one of the four eldest royal

brothers either had married, were said to have married, or were on the

point of marrying, subjects. Edward Duke of York had made love to Lady

Mary Coke, whose great birth, great ambition and pride, and untainted

virtue, had certainly never entertained his addresses in a criminal

light. In truth, for some time his attachment had seemed serious; and

though it had not only worn away for the two last years of his life,

but that he had made a jest of her pretensions, he had written her such

letters as at least she chose to construe into promises of marriage,

and which, to colour the immoderate grief she acted for his death, she

carried to Princess Amelie, as proofs that her trust had been well

founded: but, as the Duke was very liberal of his overtures, there was

a young Irish gentlewoman, whose intellects not being sound, proclaimed

herself loudly his widow. The Dukes of Gloucester and Cumberland had,

as I have said, gone much farther; and the King himself, as I have

mentioned, seemed to have designed to make Lady Sarah Lenox his Queen.

The King sent orders to the Duke of Cumberland not to appear at Court.

While he stayed at Calais, he gave balls under a feigned name, and with

his Duchess made a tour to some towns in French Flanders.

Finding at last that no violence would be attempted against his person,

he returned to England on the 30th of November, and retired with his

Duchess to his lodge in the great park at Windsor, which the King did

not take from him. Even his gentlemen equerries were permitted to

remain about his person, having been chosen by the King, and having

had no knowledge of the Duke’s wedding. But the Guards were withdrawn,

and the Lord Chamberlain was ordered to whisper, though not in form,

that whoever went to the Duke or Duchess of Cumberland must not appear

at Court. The same information was given privately to the Foreign

Ministers; and the effect was so universal, or the contempt for the

Duke and hatred of his new connection so general, that not a man even

of the Opposition made him a visit. Sir John Delaval[211] and his

wife, the Duke’s intimates, were the sole persons of a rank above the

vulgar that went near them, except the Lutterells. Temple Lutterell,

one of the brothers, a very sensible lawyer, was supposed to be author

of many libels published in the papers against the King’s cruelty to

his brother; yet it ought to be acknowledged, that the King could not

well express less resentment.

In the meantime came more favourable accounts of the Duke of

Gloucester. He recovered, though the hiccup and symptoms of death had

appeared on him; and as soon as his strength was a little recruited, he

sailed to Naples, the voyage whither again brought on a return of his

flux; but he once more mastered it; and the English physicians were of

opinion that the discharge might for some time relieve the virulence

of his complaint, though no man flattered himself with a long duration

of the Duke’s life. On his return he visited Rome, and the Stuarts had

once more the mortification of seeing a Prince of the rival Blood, and

a Protestant, distinguished with peculiar honours by a Pope, who even

conversed with him.

This was the last gleam of comfort to the dying Princess: but this

reprieve of her son was bitterly dashed by the shame and misery that

fell on her daughter, the Queen of Denmark, of which, as she languished

till the beginning of the next year,[212] she lived long enough to

hear, and but just long enough to die with the anxiety of dreading a

fatal conclusion to that daughter.

She now beheld the wretched consequences of the wretched education

she had given her children. The Queen of Denmark had been kept in her

nursery till sent to Copenhagen; had had no company but servants, and

could have seen nothing but an intimacy with Lord Bute, which all the

Princess’s children spoke of with disgust; and could have heard nothing

but passionate lamentations from the Princess on the impotence of

power possessed by English Sovereigns,--lessons that seem to have made

but too deep impression on the inexperienced young Queen of Denmark,

when she came to have a lover, and be mistress of absolute power.

The Duke of Gloucester, the Princess of Wales had always loved the

least, though the most meritorious of her children. She thought him

insuperably dull,--nor was he bright: one day in his childhood she

ridiculed him before his brothers and sisters, and bade them laugh at

the fool. He sat silent and thoughtful. She said, “What! now you are

sullen.” He replied, “No, he was thinking.”--“Thinking!” replied his

mother, with scorn; “and pray, what was you thinking of?” He answered,

“I was thinking what I should feel if I had a son as unhappy as you

make me!”

This unfortunate mother’s fate is a speaking lesson to princes. Had

the credit and happiness of her children been her object, her own life

might, except in those she lost, have been prosperous and renowned.

Her own ambition, and the desire of making her son more powerful than

the laws allowed, led her and him into disgraces, mortifications,

humiliations. Reviled, traduced, hated, she scarce dared to appear out

of her palace; her Favourite she saw driven from his country, and his

life frequently endangered. Her younger children disgraced her; and the

eldest, as well as herself, missed the despotism she sought for both,

and obtained only that triste pre-eminence of Turkish sultans, being

shut up with mutes in their own seraglio.

APPENDIX.

I.

CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF LORD BUTE.

(Vol. i. p. 10.)

Walpole is correct in stating that “Mr. Pitt had been for some time on

the coldest terms with Lord Bute.”

What was the original cause of this coldness does not appear. Among

the Elliot MSS. is a long letter from Lord Bute to Sir Gilbert

Elliot, dated the 30th of April, 1760, expressing deep regret at the

interruption of the “fraternal union” which had previously subsisted

between him and Mr. Pitt, and empowering Sir Gilbert to use the first

favourable opportunity to bring about a reconciliation.

Efforts were accordingly made by Sir Gilbert to satisfy Mr. Pitt, and

they elicited a long statement from the latter of his grievances, which

is not very intelligible, except that jealousy at the superior favour

and influence attained by Lord Bute at Leicester House was his most

prominent feeling. When Lord Bute and Mr. Pitt met at Kew on the King’s

accession, no intercourse had taken place between them for some months;

on that occasion some mutual civilities passed and nothing more.

The meeting between Lord Bute and Mr. Pitt, after the council,

(_supra_ vol. i. p. 9,) was at the request of Lord Bute, and not of

Mr. Pitt, and it was sought by the former in the hope of his being

able to recover Mr. Pitt’s regard. He made every concession that the

nicest honour could have required, to Mr. Pitt’s private feelings,

and expressed unqualified approbation of his public conduct, even

with respect to the war, and ended by offering him his cordial and

sincere friendship. Mr. Pitt’s answer certainly held out no prospect

of any reconciliation; it is cold and repulsive. He makes it plain

that he would insist on entire and uncontrolled power in the cabinet;

and the language in which this determination is expressed must have

been most unpleasant to Lord Bute, as conveying an implied censure

of his political views, which he admitted were to give disinterested

assistance, as the King’s friend, in carrying on the government.[213]

The position which Lord Bute thus designed for himself was as visionary

as that “Patriot King” described by Bolingbroke; but Lord Bute was

himself a visionary, and if Mr. Pitt had possessed the tact and

temper of Sir Robert Walpole, he might have gained such an ascendancy

over Lord Bute as to make the latter instrumental in carrying on his

government. But Mr. Pitt too heartily despised and disliked Lord Bute

to condescend to manage him, and there were others without the same

fastidiousness, who soon turned the vain ambition of that nobleman

to their own account. It was his constant interference, as well in

public measures as in the disposal of patronage, that led to his

appointment to the Secretaryship. Some of the Ministers thought, and

wisely too, that his being a member of the Government would make him

less dangerous.[214] Their own intrigues, however, led to his further

elevation, the natural and inevitable result of which was, his utter

failure and precipitate fall.

Walpole, in more mature age, expressed a more favourable opinion of

Lord Bute than will be collected from this work. He says:--

“Lord Bute was my schoolfellow. He was a man of taste and science, and

I do believe his intentions were good. He wished to blend and unite all

parties. The Tories were willing to come in for a _share_ of power,

after having been so long excluded,--but the Whigs were not willing to

grant that share. Power is an intoxicating draught; the more a man has,

the more he desires.”[215]

The most able character of Lord Bute, and a masterly one it is, has

been drawn by Lord Chesterfield.[216] No one can read it without

admiring the knowledge of the world, sagacity, and fine discrimination

of its author.

“Duchess told me,” says Lord Malmesbury,[217] “that in 1762, when Lord

Bute came in, it was in consequence of the Duke of Devonshire and Lord

Rockingham going to the King, and saying that if his Majesty meant to

be directed by Lord Bute’s counsels and advice, he had better bring

him forward at once. This he (the King) did, and that when Lord Bute

went out early in 1763, it was because he thought, by offering his

resignation to the King, that his Majesty would press him to remain

in and add to his power and influence; but the contrary arrived: and

the Duchess said her mother and the King used to laugh together at the

Rockinghams and Lord Bute having been the dupes of their cunning. The

first lost their offices, which they wanted to keep, and the latter the

office he was ambitious of retaining.”--Dec. 4th, 1794.

When the Duchess of Brunswick spoke of events which had happened thirty

years back, strict accuracy of recollection could not be expected

from her, and she is hardly entitled to belief in opposition to

contemporary authorities. Lord Bute’s letters--his declarations to

his friends--his known disposition--all combine in furnishing the

strongest evidence that his wish to quit office was perfectly sincere.

Letters are still extant in private repositories, amply sufficient to

prove that for some time at least after his accession, the King placed

unbounded confidence in Lord Bute; and the power exercised by that

nobleman in providing for his dependants on his retirement, as well as

the universal impression at the time, not only of the public but of

the persons likely to possess the best information of what was passing

at Court, betray no indication of any change in the King’s feelings.

Indeed, whatever might have been his Majesty’s defects, inconstancy was

not one of them.

II.

DR. THOMAS, BISHOP OF WINCHESTER.

(Vol. i. p. 75.)

He was the son of a Colonel in the Guards, who died poor. In early

life, he had to struggle with many difficulties and disappointments.

“By much exertion,” to use his own words, somewhat abridged, “he became

a popular preacher in the City. He had a turn at St. Paul’s, when

Bishop Hare was present. The Bishop liked his sermon, sent for him,

heard him a second time, and then gave him a prebendal stall. Having

thus got his foot on the ladder, he mounted rapidly.”[218] He was a

man of sense and learning, and of unexceptionable character. He gained

little influence or weight at Court; perhaps he had the prudence not to

seek it. The King certainly liked him, and paid him frequent visits at

Farnham Palace, after his promotion to Winchester. He died in 1781.

III.

GEORGE THE THIRD AND MR. MACKENZIE.

(Vol. ii. p. 175.)

Sir Gilbert Elliot’s account of the interviews between the King and

his Ministers, just before the removal of Mr. Grenville, corresponds

generally with Walpole’s narrative. It proves how reluctantly the King

gave up Mr. Mackenzie. His Majesty, indeed, did not yield until he was

driven to an unconditional surrender; and, after appealing in vain to

Mr. Grenville’s sense of honour, in obliging him to depart from the

engagement he had made to Mr. Mackenzie, he used these expressions, “I

will not throw my kingdoms into confusion; you force me to break my

word, and you must be responsible for the consequences.”

The indignation felt by his Majesty on this occasion, he took no pains

to conceal. The Duke of Bedford’s remonstrance, strong as it may have

been, certainly did not irritate the King to the extent that Walpole

has stated, or Sir Gilbert Elliot would have commented on it severely,

which he has not done. The only reply made by the King to the Duke’s

demand of additional confidence was, “that the confidence necessary for

the despatch of business, he had given them; as to favour, they had not

taken the way to merit it.”[219]--E.

IV.

LIBEL ON THE KING OF SPAIN.

TO THE EDITOR OF “THE LONDON MAGAZINE.”

SIR,

A Letter in one of our public prints, reflecting upon his Catholic

Majesty, being everywhere mentioned as the principal cause of an

apprehended war with Spain, I have sent you that celebrated production

for the entertainment of your readers, as it is extremely difficult

to meet with a genuine copy, and as a spurious paper may possibly be

foisted on the world without the interposition of _official_ authority.

I am, Sir, &c.,

A CLERK IN OFFICE.

_The imputed Libel on the King of Spain, said to be a principal Cause

of the apprehended War, as it was complained of by the Spanish

Ambassador to the Secretary of State._

TO THE GAZETTEER.

Your correspondent Seneca seems mightily pleased with the _bon-mot_

of G---- the Second. I agree with him, there is a good deal of humour

in it, but a _bon-mot_, before it can be fully allowed as such, ought

to be founded strictly in truth. If G---- the Second’s _bon-mot_ is

relative only to the unwise of the House of B----k that were born

before the commencement of the present century, or that were born in

Germany, it may probably have truth for its foundation. But I would

start even the Duke of C---- against any one of the three crowned heads

of the Bourbon family. There seems to be a distinct climax amongst

their three Bourbonian Majesties. The King of Sicily’s eldest brother,

we all know, was put aside from the throne because he was an absolute,

irrecoverable idiot; his present Majesty of Sicily is, I conceive, just

one remove from his brother.

The next crowned head of the Bourbon family, I mean the King of Spain,

may be allowed to be one remove and a half from his Sicilian Majesty,

if weighed in the scale of intelligent or intellectual beings.

As a proof that the King of Spain is removed somewhat more than a

degree and a half from downright idiotcy, I will relate a story of him,

which will convince any fautor of monarchical government that his Most

Catholic Majesty is endowed with sufficient understanding to govern the

rich and powerful kingdom of Spain, or, indeed, any other kingdom in

Christendom, according to the modern standard of Bourbonian kings.

Some few years ago, Charles the Third, his present Catholic Majesty,

who is passionately fond of hunting, had accoutred himself as usual

for the chase. It was in the month of January, and the weather at the

extremest point of cold. The snow began to fall in such broad flakes

that the poor King was absolutely prohibited the chase that day. The

servants about his person were ordered to lay three or four dozen

of watches before their royal master, in order that he might amuse

himself with the delightful and instructive pastime of winding them

up. It seems even this King affects and is allowed all the pageantry,

ceremony, and parade of regal state. His servants, thus having brought

him the watches, retired, and left him all alone. It is remarkable of

this crowned head, that, like Cicero, he is _nunquam minus solus quam

cum solus_; that is to say, he never perceives the least difference

whatever between a solitude and a multitude.

I take the winding-up of thirty or forty watches to be an operation

which must soon fatigue the mental faculties, and those faculties

fatigued make room for the exertion of the bodily powers; accordingly,

we are told that his Majesty, who is an enemy to idleness and inaction,

the moment he had wound up his watches, immediately perceived by dint

of instinct that the weather was extremely cold. To counter-operate

the inclemency of this sharp season, what could his Majesty do? His

servants had left his hunting-whip in the room with him; this room was

hung with gobelin tapestry. The vivid colours and lively figure of an

Arabian steed, ready saddled, was represented to the life. His Majesty,

who is not easily deceived, immediately approaches the highly-coloured

arras, attempts to mount his Bucephalus; the pictured stirrup fails

to admit his kingly foot, and, O dire mishap! plump falls the Majesty

of Spain on the resplendent wax-rubbed floor. Long did this mighty

monarch, over whose wide-extended dominions the sun never ceases to

shine, ponderate in his kingly breast, whether he should severely

correct the resplendent wax-rubbed floor, or whether his hunting-whip

would not fall with greater justice on the still prancing, proud

Arabian steed. Wisely did Charles the Third distinguish between primary

and secondary causes. The saddled palfrey, therefore, could not but

appear to be the proper and immediate object of royal resentment.

This weighty point determined, and Charles having thus acted the two

parts of juryman and judge, there remained only the executioner’s

part for him to perform. Instantly he sprung from off the floor, and

with his three-thonged hunting-whip, during thirty-four minutes, two

seconds, and a-half, with hand uplifted, _sublimi flagello_, flogged

the unmoving, unmoved stately quadruped. At length, half-drowned and

half-suffocated in his own unfragrant exudations, which copiously oozed

out at every pore, the King, quite spent, again involuntarily rushed

rumbling down upon the resplendent wax-rubbed floor. Alarmed at this

unusual noise, the guard attendant in the outer room, breaking through

all order and every etiquette of Madrid’s solemn stately-marching

court, quickly rushed in the apartment royal, and found their monarch,

Cyrus-like, weltering, if not in reeking gore, at least in reeking

sweat.

The faculty, called in, all stunned aghast! and they themselves

shivering with cold intense, much wonder whence the cause of all this

burning heat, which thus unknown had overpowered their King. When

straight, as rising from a trance and starting into life again, thus

oracularly answered Charles the Third:

“Be not surprised that thus I sweat, for by this watch of Graham’s

make, thirty-four minutes, two seconds, and a-half, have I been

flogging with this whip, whose ponderous handle is of massy gold, that

high-stomached quadruped, whose traitorous hoof hath twice extended my

whole length upon this floor.” Much more spoke he, while every word was

to the full as pertinent and wise.

From these outlines, characteristic of this crowned head, your readers

will perceive I had strong reasons for saying that Charles the Third,

King of the Two Indies, is rather more than a degree and a-half less

unwise than his son, Ferdinand the Fourth, King of the Two Sicilies.

In my next letter I will draw the picture of that other crowned head of

the Bourbon family, Louis the Fifteenth, King of Navarre.

ONE WHO PAINTS TO THE LIFE.

V.

EXTRACTS FROM THE MS. LIFE OF THE DUKE OF GRAFTON, BY HIMSELF,

ILLUSTRATIVE OF WALPOLE’S MEMOIRS OF GEORGE THE THIRD, WITH SOME

INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS.

Charles second Duke of Grafton, Lord Chamberlain and Knight of the

Garter, grandson to Charles the Second, had three sons, all of whom

died before him. Lord Augustus Fitzroy, the only one that left issue,

was a captain of the navy; like his grandfather, the first Duke, he

was a bold and active seaman, and having of course great interest, he

seems to have been constantly employed. In one of his first cruises,

happening to be on the American station, he fell in love with Miss

Cosby, the daughter of Colonel Cosby, the Governor of New York, and

married her, without waiting for his father’s consent, when he was only

seventeen years old. His career was brief, for he died at Jamaica, in

his twenty-fifth year, of a fever contracted at the unfortunate attack

on Carthagena, where he had served on board the Orford man-of-war.

Lord Augustus left two sons; the younger entered the army, and having

distinguished himself at Minden and other engagements during the seven

years’ war, rose high in the army and held various posts at Court. He

was raised to the peerage by the title of Baron Southampton. He died in

1797. The present Lord Southampton is his grandson.

Augustus Henry, the eldest son, who eventually succeeded his

grandfather as Duke of Grafton, was born in October 1735. After

receiving his early education under Mr. Newcome at Hackney school, a

seminary of high repute in that day, he was removed to Peterhouse,

Cambridge, and remained a sufficient time at the University. He was

committed by his grandfather to the care of a Genoese governor, and

sent on what was called the _grand tour_. Pursuing the beaten track,

he visited the south of France and Switzerland, wintered at Naples and

at Geneva, and, returning by Germany and Holland to Paris, passed five

months under the protection of the British Ambassador, Lord Albemarle,

by whom he was introduced to all the gaiety, and, judging from the

character of his patron, most probably the dissipation of the capital.

He came back to England, on attaining his majority, to be elected

member for Thetford, a borough which the vicinity of Euston placed

under the control of his family, and took his seat in the House of

Commons in the beginning of the session of 1756.

Lord Euston (as he had now become by the death of his uncle) had far

from neglected the cultivation of his mind during his travels. Besides

consulting the various historical works relating to the countries which

he visited, it appears that he read Mr. Locke’s Treatises with great

attention, and the principles of government there laid down guided

him throughout his long life. If he departed from them it was from

inadvertence, and not from design. Thus he acquired early a reputation

for intelligence and accomplishments, which caused him on his arrival

in England to be placed with Lord Huntingdon, who passed for the most

promising young nobleman of his day, in the household then forming

for the Prince of Wales, who had just attained his majority. The

Prince wished him to be the Master of the Horse in preference to Lord

Huntingdon, but the latter having the Duke of Newcastle’s interest,

obtained the nomination, and Lord Euston, with some reluctance,

accepted the inferior post of Lord of the Bedchamber. He held it only

a few months. The service happened to be unusually constant, owing to

the absence of some of his colleagues and the illness of others, and

he found it so irksome, that, on finding Lord Bute indisposed to afford

him any relief, he resigned. The Prince parted from him with marked

reluctance, which was so little shared by Lord Bute, that the latter

was believed to have made an unscrupulous use of his influence in order

to effect the removal of a formidable competitor.

On the death of the Duke of Grafton in May, 1757, which was occasioned

by a fall from his horse, Lord Euston succeeded to his title, as well

as to the large possessions attached to it.

This elevation brought with it, as usual, the smiles and favours of

the Ministry on a young nobleman whose rank and wealth, and evidently

no common parts, seemed to destine him for an important share in the

government of the country. The Duke, however, at first appeared to

shew a decided preference for a retired life. He was eagerly addicted

to field sports: and took equal pride and pleasure in his pack of

hounds, which made Wakefield the resort of the keenest hunters of the

day. Newmarket, too, had unfortunately strong attractions for him.

Above all, he had a home which had not yet lost its charms; for in

January, 1736, he had married the Hon. Miss Liddel, only child of Lord

Ravensworth, with the fairest prospects of happiness. The beauty,

grace, and talents of the Duchess have been celebrated by contemporary

writers, nor was she less entitled to praise for higher qualities. She

had a warm heart and was susceptible of strong attachment.[220] The

Duke was fully capable of appreciating her merits; and there is no

reason to suppose that the first years of their union were clouded by

any serious differences.

In 1761, the Duke made a tour with the Duchess and his two elder

children on the Continent; and it was only on his return in the

following year, that he seems to have entertained serious thoughts of

taking a more active part in politics.

EXTRACT I.

But to return to Mr. Grenville’s Ministry, which had been supported by

great majorities (except on the debate on General Warrants) in both

Houses, we can but remark that the vexatious and impolitic acts that

were passed in the year 1764, and at the beginning of 1765, under these

mighty majorities, were rapidly working out the greatest distresses and

losses to the country.

The Administration met the Parliament in 1765, with great confidence in

their own strength, and too little attention to those steps by which

they had ascended to their power. The illness of the King during the

session awakened the duty of Parliament to bring forward a Regency

Bill, which was early suggested by the King himself. The Bill was

accordingly brought into the House of Peers, and there passed, though

so drawn as to exclude the Princess-Mother from being nominated Regent.

In the Commons, this affront was taken off by the insertion of her

Royal Highness’s name, and by the amendment carried up, and agreed to

by the Lords; when the Ministers had the mortification of being obliged

to submit to bear that affront which they had destined for others.

The evident intention of the King’s principal servants in this

business, sealed their own overthrow; and as they had never been

graciously considered in the closet, the consequences which would

naturally follow were easily foreseen. Yet some were so blinded with

ambition as not to be aware of the slippery ground on which the

Ministry stood; and it was observed with surprise that Mr. Charles

Townshend, in particular, a short time after, accepted the post of

Paymaster, on the dismission of Lord Holland, who had, on the retreat

of Lord Bute, given up the lead of the House of Commons to Mr. George

Grenville.

My friends very justly reproached me for idling my time away in the

country, during a great part of this session; without attending

sufficiently to that duty in Parliament which became my station, and

was expected from me. They, however, treated me with more attention

than such conduct deserved; for I was by them constantly acquainted

with all that was passing in the political world, and the Opposition

had so little expectation of being called upon to take a part in

Administration, unless under and by the recommendation of Mr. Pitt,

that even when the coolness between the King and his servants was

apparent to all mankind, to act under Mr. Pitt became the general

voice, and was our principal wish.

It may not be amiss to insert Lord Rockingham’s letter, which brought

me up to attend the Regency Bill, as it may serve to shew the light

in which the Marquis and his friends considered the Bill on its

introduction; and, afterwards, it will be proper to enter into some

detail on many negotiations and occurrences that followed.

“April 24th, 1765.

“MY DEAR LORD,

“His Majesty came to the House to-day, to open the affair of the

Regency Bill. I enclose to your Grace the speech. Our Address was

only in general terms, to congratulate upon his Majesty’s recovery,

and to thank him for his care and foresight, &c., in providing

for the security of the country, &c., and to promise that we will

proceed in this matter with all expedition. Nothing was said in

our House by any of our friends. Lord Temple and Lord Lyttelton

went away before the Address was moved. The Bill, I expect, will

be brought in on Friday and read the first time; and it would not

surprise me if a second reading and commitment should be pressed

for that day or for Saturday.

“Upon so great a point I cannot refrain expressing my earnest wish

that your Grace should not be absent. Your Grace will observe,

by the Speech, that it is not intended that the Regent shall

be appointed by the Act; but left to the King by instrument to

nominate either the Queen or some _one of his Royal Family_. It is

said, that by this description, a certain great lady is excluded:

how far it is so, I am not certain. But supposing it was so, yet a

fresh objection lies from the unusualness of the Regent not being

nominally inserted. There are other parts expected in the Bill

which will be liable to great objections, and I doubt not but that

there will be some Lords who can and will make their objections.

“Lord Temple, yesterday, wished I would have sent an express to you

for to-day; but the time was so short that your Grace would scarce

have arrived in London before three o’clock this evening; and,

indeed, I doubted whether anything would have been entered upon in

the House today.

“I have more expectation on what may pass on Friday; but even on

that I have hesitated for some hours whether to send to you or no,

as I would not willingly occasion you a long journey to little

purpose: the very chance of a debate deserves your attention, and

in that light I will hope to apologize for my venturing to do what

I now do.

“I am ever, &c.

“ROCKINGHAM.”

“Grosvenor-Square,

Wednesday Night, 12 o’Clock.”

Notwithstanding there had been many reports of dissensions among his

Majesty’s Ministers and servants during the course of the whole winter,

and particularly towards the conclusion of the session, no authentic

accounts ever reached me of them, nor of the King’s displeasure at

their conduct and behaviour to himself, till I received an express from

the Duke of Cumberland. The letter, written by his Royal Highness,

was brought to me at Wakefield Lodge, the 14th of May, at night. It

contained an intimation of the King’s intention of _changing his

Administration_, of taking in their places those whom his Royal

Highness said both _he_ and _myself_ had wished in power, and adding

a desire of talking _public as well as private affairs over with me_.

This summons was instantly obeyed, and I got to Cumberland House even

before the Duke was called. He sent for me to come immediately into

his bedchamber, and opened the discourse by telling me that, though he

was only commanded by the King to intimate his present dispositions

to employ Mr. Pitt and the Lords Rockingham and Temple, yet he was

confident that he should be forgiven if he stretched his commission

by adding me to the number, saying at the same time, with his usual

goodness, that he had that regard and opinion of me that he could not

avoid wishing to hear my thoughts and inclinations, as well for myself

as for my friends, on such an occasion. After expressions of this

sort, the Duke told me that he had had some knowledge of his Majesty’s

intentions before the Regency Bill was brought into our House; but, as

he had endeavoured to dissuade the King from bringing it in at so short

a notice, and when so little time was left to consider a matter of that

importance, he had humbly begged to decline giving his Majesty his

opinion of men, as he was sure those whom he might recommend would not

undertake that Bill, so drawn, and pressed at such a moment.

The behaviour of the Ministers on that occasion, who wished to exclude

the Princess Dowager, was such as neither answered their own design

nor in any way turned to their honour, but put the finishing-stroke to

the dislike the King had already conceived against them. After Lord

Halifax had moved that the King might in that Bill be empowered to name

as Regent any one of his Royal Family, descendant of George the Second,

they thought their end was answered; but soon saw the meanness to which

they were obliged to bend by assenting afterwards to the amendment

proposed, and made to it in the Lower House, of allowing the Princess

Dowager, by name, to be added to those who might be Regent. The defeat

of their design was not the only consequence of their attempt, which

was plainly seen through; and the Princess was naturally expected to

resent this affront. Their servility in submitting was sufficient to

add in the King’s mind a contempt of their characters to that disgust

he already had for men who had brought an odium on his Government, and

who had not, as he expressed, served him with decency in the closet.

The King, in this situation, and a few days before the intended

prorogation of Parliament, sent for the Duke of Cumberland, asked his

advice in forming such an Administration as would please his kingdom,

and carry weight and credit both at home and abroad,--two points of

which he was sensible the country as well as the Crown stood in need.

The Duke, penetrated with this mark of the King’s favour, and more

with the return of His Majesty’s confidence, expressed his sensibility

of both; but added, that he was certain that the King would not, in

any shape, mean that he should engage in an affair of such delicacy

and real consequence in any manner derogatory to his honour. “Give

me leave, sir,” said the Duke, “to observe, that I should hurt that

honour, as well as lose the esteem of the world, if I was forming an

Administration in which Lord Bute should have either weight or power.”

After every assurance given by the King on this head, the Duke could

no longer doubt of the sincerity of such a proposal. Much conversation

then passed on the means of forming a new Administration, and the Duke

left the King, commanded by him to think fully upon it. His Majesty

had intimated, however, his _wish_ to have Lord Northumberland at the

head of the Treasury,--a proposal of which, in the hurry of so many

and important matters, I sincerely think the Duke did not immediately

weigh the consequence; but he soon afterwards saw it, and had the

satisfaction also to find that the King himself abandoned it when

it was shewn to him to be inconsistent that so near a relation of

Lord Bute’s should hold so great a post of business,--for, let his

professions have been ever so satisfactory to those who were to act

with him, the world would still deem the Treasury in the hands of a

lieutenant of Lord Bute’s, and would consider such a step incompatible

with all the former conduct and professions of those who were to form

the new Administration.

This was the Duke’s account of what had passed: he then sounded my

own inclinations, and whether I wished anything in such a change for

myself, or what for my friends; he told me he both disapproved and

much lamented that I was so much retired from the world, and not

giving, in my rank, every assistance which my country had a right to

require of me. I answered his Royal Highness, with many thanks for

the favourable opinion he had of me, that I was very sensible that my

power of serving my country he rated infinitely beyond my abilities;

but that no one could in his heart wish it better, nor would go

further to serve it; and that I did not mean to retire another year

so much from the world as I had done. I expressed, next, that the

small experience I had early in my life of a Court, had made me take a

resolution which was every day strongly confirmed, that no inducement

could lead me to take a Court employment; but that I was ready to

undertake any one of business, provided I was satisfied that I could

go through such an office with credit to myself and without prejudice

to my country: that I owned my wish was to have my brother, Colonel

Fitzroy Scudamore, and some other friends, who had been sufferers on my

account, replaced, which would sufficiently shew my intentions, and to

be left myself to applaud and forwardly to support the measures which

I was confident would be pursued by an _honourable Administration_.

Indeed, such appeared to me, and does still, the way in which I could

have been of the most use. The lower posts of business were not fit

for the rank I stood in, nor were the greater more fit for the total

inexperience I had of any office. Whereas, the support of a man who was

looked upon as steady in his conduct, and not famed for supporting all

Administrations, would have given weight to a cause, if I could have

been allowed to have served it without being in place.

The Duke was not satisfied with my answer, and proposed and pressed me

to be at the head of the Board of Trade, which I begged to decline,

looking upon it in a very different light from what I found his Royal

Highness did, as I really thought it as difficult a post as any

whatever. As this transaction was not to transpire at that time, I

asked the Duke’s leave to return into the country again that very day,

which I did. I should have mentioned before, that whilst I was with the

Duke, he asked me this question,--whether I thought an Administration

could be formed (principally out of the minority) without Mr. Pitt?

On my assuring him that my opinion was, that nothing so formed could

be stable, he said, he hoped there was every reason to think he would

engage, as Lord Albemarle had been with him the day before, and that

his Lordship thought he saw it in a favourable light.

With these hopes I left London, and in a few days afterwards had the

mortification to see them blasted, by receiving a fresh messenger from

the Duke of Cumberland, desiring my immediate attendance in London. A

letter, written by Lord Albemarle by the Duke’s order, dated at night,

May 22nd, brought me this account in words to this effect,--that the

Duke had been five hours with Mr. Pitt at Hayes, without prevailing on

him to take a part; that the King was the next morning to answer some

_questions_, to be put to him by his present Ministers, in one of which

his Royal Highness was personally concerned, and that the Duke desired

my support on the occasion. Lord Albemarle also adds, that the King had

been most insolently treated by his Ministers, and shamefully abandoned

by those who should have profited by this occasion to serve their

King and country. On receiving this account, my first step was to go

instantly to receive his Royal Highness’s commands, whom I found just

going to Court to know the King’s determination. He told me, however,

in a few words, the advice he had given to the King the night before,

and referred me to Lord Albemarle for the whole of what had passed

since I last waited upon him, commanding me also to wait upon him on

his return from St. James’s, and to dine with him. Lord Albemarle’s

account tallied so exactly with what the Duke afterwards related to

me, that it is needless to repeat both. His Royal Highness said, that

finding Lord Temple cooler on the subject than he expected, and that

Mr. Pitt was also less forward since Lord Temple’s arrival in London,

he had explained to the King the absolute necessity there was of every

object being removed that might prevent Mr. Pitt’s taking a part, and

hoping even to have his Majesty’s assurance that many measures might be

redressed, and some wholly broken through, to make it more satisfactory

to Mr. Pitt on entering upon his Ministry.

On the preceding Saturday, the King had sent for his Royal Highness,

and had told him, in the kindest terms and most explicit words, that he

put himself wholly, in this affair, into his hands; that he saw plainly

the propriety of his advice. For which reason he ordered him to go the

next morning to Mr. Pitt, with full powers from him to treat with Mr.

Pitt, and to come into the constitutional steps he had before mentioned

as essential to the country; as also, that his Majesty was not backward

to lean to his foreign politics, if he (Mr. Pitt) should think it most

beneficial, when he saw how affairs then stood. His Royal Highness

told me that he had patience to attend to very long discourses, which

Mr. Pitt held on the subject, in which the Duke declared he could

not always follow him: as he was sometimes speaking of himself as

already the acting Minister, and then would turn about by showing how

impossible it was for him ever to be in an employment of such a nature,

and always would end by observing that if such and such measures were

pursued, he would _applaud_ them loudly from whatever men they came.

Mr. Pitt also told his Royal Highness, that if an Administration

went in on such ground as he had laid down, he would _exhort_ his

friends--nay, his brothers, to accept; but that he doubted much whether

the latter (meaning Lord Temple and J. Grenville) would.

Mr. Pitt’s plan abroad was, for a close union with the northern Courts

of Germany, together with Russia, to balance the Bourbon alliance,

to which the Duke gave the answer I before mentioned, and that the

King was ready to support Mr. Pitt in any alliance that he should

judge the most valid to check any attempts that might arise from the

family compact of the House of Bourbon. At home, Mr. Pitt lamented

(and in which the Duke most sincerely joined) the infringement on our

constitution in the affair of the Warrants, left still undecided,

though twice before Parliament; the army degraded, as well as our

liberties struck at, by the dismission of officers who had taken the

part in Parliament which their consciences prompted them to, so much

to their honour, though contrary to their interest; and in addition to

these, should be taken into consideration the propriety of rewarding

the uprightness of Lord Chief Justice Pratt at such a crisis, by giving

him a peerage. To Mr. Pitt’s question to the Duke, whether the Great

Seal was promised to Mr. Charles Yorke? his Royal Highness could only

answer, that he could not say how far the King had engaged himself with

that gentleman. The Duke did not tell me what I afterwards heard from

Mr. Pitt, that the Duke had that day mentioned it to be the King’s

_wish_ to have Lord Northumberland at the head of the Treasury. If it

was mentioned, it is very clear that it was almost as soon dropped;

and I am confident that it was not, that day, the Duke’s desire any

more than that of Mr. Pitt. In which case, I think it was possible

that it was named more to feel Mr. Pitt’s notion or affections to

that quarter, or perhaps, by a policy very unnecessary with so great

a man, thinking it might be a concession that would please, when he

found that Lord Temple would be agreeable to the King in that office.

His Royal Highness, often, as he told me, pressed Mr. Pitt to chalk

out to the King a list of such as he would wish to fill all the posts

of business, which, the Duke answered for, the King would instantly

adopt. This was to no purpose; and the Duke was obliged to return to

Richmond with the unpleasant account of his ill success.

The day following, the Duke, by his Majesty’s command, was employed

in endeavouring to form an Administration without Mr. Pitt, and to

that end Lord Lyttelton was sounded, to be placed at the head of the

Treasury, with Mr. C. Townshend as the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

These gentlemen both thought the ground too weak to stand long upon,

and wished to decline it. The latter of them accepted the Pay Office,

two days after, under the old Ministry. Many different posts were

thought of and proposed for me, during this _arrangement_, but none

of them ever came to my ears till my coming to London, as it was

unnecessary I should know of them till the greater posts were fixed

on and accepted. The King, on the day following, disappointed of this

plan also, with his present Ministry at the door of the closet, ready

to resign, was under a difficulty, and in such a situation that he knew

not which way to turn. The Duke’s advice then was, as the lesser evil

of the two, to call in his old Administration rather than to leave

the country without Ministers while the town was in a tumult, raised

against the Duke of Bedford by the weavers, and the House of Lords

passing the most strange as well as violent resolutions.

On the Wednesday morning Mr. Grenville, in the name of the rest,

acquainted the King that, before they should again undertake his

affairs, they must lay before him some questions to be answered by his

Majesty; on which the King, taking him up, said, “_Terms_, I suppose

you mean, sir; what are they?” Mr. Grenville answered, that they

should expect further assurance that Lord Bute should never meddle

in the State affairs, of whatsoever sort; that Mr. Mackenzie (his

brother) should be dismissed from his employment; that Lord Holland

should also meet with the same treatment; that Lord Weymouth should

be named Lord-Lieutenant to Ireland, and that Lord Granby should be

appointed Commander-in-Chief. He then left the King, from whom they

were to have their answer the next day. Mr. G. Grenville, on that day

also, took the lead in the name of the rest; and the King, advised by

the Duke of Cumberland, except in that point relating to himself, told

them he would never give up the possibility of employing his uncle

on an emergency, which he should do if he put any one in the post of

Commander-in-Chief; that he assented to the others, though against his

opinion; and that he supposed they would not press him to break his

word, which he had given to Mr. Mackenzie; but that he was ready to

give up the management of the Scotch affairs, if they would leave him

in as Privy Seal to that kingdom. On their still insisting on his total

dismission, the King was obliged to assent; and then, by their friends,

they were considered as much stronger than they ever had been.

This affair being thus concluded, after having paid my duty at the

King’s levee, I returned again into the country, and soon waited upon

his Royal Highness, at Windsor Lodge, during the races. The Duke of

Cumberland was over at Hayes the day after I went back to Wakefield

Lodge; and though Mr. Pitt had two long conferences, in consequence,

with the King, and in the latter on Saturday, May the 19th, had

expectation that a thorough change would have taken place, according to

the fullest of our wishes. Our hopes, however, were strangely thwarted

by the disinclination of Lord Temple, who made such use of the mention

of the Earl of Northumberland for the Treasury, as to stagger Mr.

Pitt himself, as I conjectured. But the cause of the failure of this

negotiation was imputed differently, according as the partialities

and prejudices of political men led them to represent it: that no

obstacle arose from his Majesty, I am perfectly assured. Those with

whom I chiefly consorted were much inclined to blame Mr. Pitt, who, as

they said, had _carte blanche_ from the King. Mr. Pitt, on the other

hand, would not allow that this was the case; and he observed that the

expression itself was unfit to be used on such an occasion; and Mr.

J. Grenville had assured my brother that Mr. Pitt was much hurt to

find the latter offer, _to which he had acceded_, broken off before

Mr. Pitt had returned his answer. Mr. J. Grenville added, that the

reconciliation with George Grenville did not regard the public.

In the meanwhile, I received a letter from my brother, who mentioned

the conversation alluded to with Mr. J. Grenville, in which that

gentleman had also declared his own thoughts on the late negotiation,

adding, that Mr. Pitt desired much an opportunity of explaining the

whole to me. My brother pressed me strongly from himself, as well as

from Mr. Meynell and other of my friends, to see Mr. Pitt as soon as

possible, in order that I might be able to clear up and put a stop

to divisions that this whole affair had made among friends eager to

defend the part those to whom they were most attached had taken in it.

I returned for answer to my brother, that I must have some plainer

certainty of such a wish of Mr. Pitt’s, and that I would desire him

to go to Hayes to know whether the case was as represented, and to

lay before him my thoughts of his conduct on the occasion, which,

partial as I was to him, even to me appeared unfathomable, and to want

great explanation: I even offered, in case of anything having been

misunderstood, that I should be too happy to be thought worthy of

being employed by him, either to get explained or renewed a measure

that appeared to me the only one by which our King and country could

attain their ancient glory. Immediately on the receipt of my letter,

my brother went to Hayes, and having heard from Mr. Pitt the whole

relation, he transmitted the chief purport to me that same evening in

the following letters.

“London, Wednesday, May 29.

“DEAR BROTHER,

“At the end of my conversation with Mr. Pitt, I asked if I should

write word to you that he was resolved not to renew the negotiation;

he said, _Resolved_ was a _large_ word, and desired I would express

myself thus: ‘_Mr. Pitt’s determination was final, and the negotiation

is at an end_.’ These are his own words. As to your coming, he shall be

extremely happy to have the honour of seeing you, but would be ashamed

to bring you to town for so little an object; yet, if you should come

to London, would not only be proud to see you at Hayes, and talk things

over, but, if he could walk on foot to London, and pay his respects to

you, he would do it. Having said this, at your own leisure, any time

within a week or so, if you come to London, he should think himself

happy to see you at Hayes.

I am, &c.,

“CHARLES FITZROY.”

* * * * *

(Without date.)

“DEAR BROTHER,

“My other is a formal answer to my commission; this is a private

account of my conversation at Hayes, as near as I can recollect the

different heads, and shorter in substance. Mr. Pitt two hours incessant

talking. It is quite private between us--I mean you and myself. 1st,

I found he had not been acquainted with J. Grenville’s conversation

with me; upon my telling it to him _in part_, he said, it might have

come from Lord Temple, but that the different periods were not exactly

stated. He then went through every part of what had passed, and made

his remarks with several refinements upon _manner_ and _words_, and

often declared his unwillingness to engage again in office. He rested

the whole objections of this negotiation upon the transactions, opening

with the King’s wish to have Lord Northumberland at the head of the

Treasury: at the same time he expressed that he, _Mr. Pitt_, did not

desire Lord Temple should be there; but that he thought the whole

transaction a phantom, and could never have been intended serious.

He declared it impossible for him and his Royal Highness to talk a

different language as to fact, but that nothing like _carte blanche_

was ever hinted. (N.B.--he thinks that an improper phrase, as it sounds

like capitulating.) He talked much of Revolution, families _personally_

from their weight but unconnected and under no banner. For all _that_

was factious. He mentioned the great popular points: restitution of

officers, privileges, &c., &c., change of system of politics, both

domestic and foreign; said everything you would like, and resolved

nothing but retirement. I must add the highest commendations of his

Royal Highness, his judgment, abilities, integrity, &c., &c.; but said,

that ‘no man in England but himself would have brought such terms,--no,

not even Lord Bute.’ He left me totally in the dark, further than I

could easily distinguish he thinks that it was not meant to have it

_his_ Administration.

“For God’s sake, see him! it must not be to-morrow, as he has his

reconciling dinner with George Grenville: _this he told me_. The Duke

of Cumberland goes to the birthday, so you may come on Monday, if you

will, to see Mr. Pitt, and take the birthday on Tuesday, if you like

it. Adieu.

Yours,

“C. F. R.”

It was not to be wondered at, if his Majesty, under these

circumstances, was led to try every practical means by which he could

form an Administration capable of relieving him from the irksome

situation in which he stood with his present servants. Among others, I

was myself commanded by the King, through the Duke of Cumberland, to

wait on Mr. Pitt at Hayes, and to bear to him his Majesty’s wishes to

be informed what steps would be the fittest for his Majesty to take

in order to constitute an Administration of which Mr. Pitt was to be

the head, and which might, through a confidence of the principles and

abilities of the other Ministers, give satisfaction to his people. His

Royal Highness told me, that if I had any doubt as to the authority, I

might receive it from the King himself.

I was young and unsuspicious, and, moreover, perfectly relied on the

honour of those who were then present at this conference at Windsor

Great Lodge, when the King’s commands were communicated to me; and I

desired no other authority. Since that time, experience would probably

have stopped me from undertaking a commission so critical, and, I may

add, so hazardous; yet I received the satisfactory declaration from all

parties, that I had discharged my commission faithfully.

Mr. Pitt received me with the usual kindness which I had constantly met

with from him ever since he first knew me at Stowe, when I was a boy

from school; indeed, his obliging attention had been daily increasing.

He appeared to be much pleased with the subject of the message I

brought. He talked over many weighty political considerations and

situations in a very open manner; some of which were to be considered

as going no further than my own breast. The rest I was desired to

report. In a visit of more than two hours, he concluded, that with

every sense of duty to his Majesty for his obliging condescension, he

could not, but to the King himself, state his views, and what would be

his advice for the King’s dignity and the public welfare.

Mr. Pitt did see the King in a day or two after this, and again on June

the 22nd. But, alas! it will appear by the following letters, that he

was much disappointed in the warm expectation he had formed.

“Pall Mall, Saturday, June 22d, 1765.

“MY LORD,

“Having had an audience again to-day of his Majesty at the Queen’s

house, I find myself under a necessity of expressing my extreme desire

to have the honour of a conversation with your Grace. Did my shattered

health permit, I would have had the pleasure of being my own messenger

to Wakefield Lodge; as it is, I trust your Grace will, in consideration

of my sincere respect and attachment, pardon the great liberty I take

in desiring that your Grace would take the trouble of a journey to

town. I am going to sleep at Hayes, where I find it necessary for me

to be, as much as may be, for the air; and shall be proud and happy

to have the honour of waiting on your Grace, at my return to London,

Monday night, in case you should be then arrived,--or some time on

Tuesday next. A letter would but ill convey what I have to impart; I

therefore defer entering into matter till I have the satisfaction of

meeting; and will only say, that I think the Royal dispositions are

most propitious to the wishes of the public, with regard to _measures_

most likely to spread satisfaction. When your Grace arrives, you

will hear with your own ears, and see with your own eyes, which will

be better than any lights I can convey. I have the honour to be, with

perfect truth and respect,

“Your Grace’s most obedient and most humble servant,

WILLIAM PITT.”

* * * * *

“Hayes, Tuesday Evening.

“MY LORD,

“It is with extreme concern that I am to acquaint your Grace that Lord

Temple declines to take the Treasury. This unfortunate event wholly

disables me from undertaking that part which my zeal, under all the

weight of infirmities, had determined me to attempt. As in this crisis

I imagine your Grace will judge proper to come to town, I trust you

will pardon the trouble of this line, and believe me, with true respect

and attachment,

“Your Grace’s most faithful, and

Most obedient humble Servant,

WILLIAM PITT.”

Despairing of receiving Mr. Pitt’s assistance at our head, a new plan

for establishing a Ministry was proposed to his Majesty by his Royal

Highness, and accepted; several, with myself, understanding that it

came forward with the full declaration of our desire to receive Mr.

Pitt at our head, _whenever_ he should see the situation of affairs to

be such as to allow him to take that part. My concern afterwards was

great, when I found, before the conclusion of our first session, that

this idea was already vanished from the minds of some of my colleagues.

I always understood this to be the ground on which I engaged, and it

will be seen that I adhered to my own resolution to the last.

When the principal line of ministerial departments was settled between

his Majesty and his Royal Highness, a considerable number of the

leading men in both Houses were invited to a great dinner, at whose

house I do not exactly recollect, where the great officers were to

be fixed on, as much as possible to the general satisfaction of the

meeting as to the person himself. A real difficulty, however, arose

concerning the Treasury; for the delicacy of Lord Rockingham kept him

back for some time from accepting that post, to which the Duke of

Newcastle was giving up the claim reluctantly, though most of his own

friends felt that his advanced age rendered him inadequate to fill it.

After long resistance, the Marquis yielded; and the other offices were

nearly agreed upon, as we kissed hands for them on the 10th of July.

EXTRACT II.

The internal state of the country was really alarming; and from my

situation I had more cause to feel it than any other man. But a measure

at this time adopted by a majority of the King’s servants gave me still

more apprehension, considering it to be big with more mischief; for,

contrary to my proposal of including the articles of teas, together

with all the other trifling objects of taxation, to be repealed on the

opening of the next session, it was decided that the teas were still

to remain taxed as before, though contrary to the declared opinions of

Lord Camden, Lord Granby, General Conway, and myself. Sir Edward Hawke

was absent through illness: otherwise I think he would have agreed with

those who voted for including the teas in the repeal. But this was not

all; and considering what important consequences this very decision

led to, there is no minute part of it on which you should not be

informed.

When we had delivered _seriatim_ our opinions, the minute, as is

usual, was taken down by Lord Hillsborough; and in that part where the

intentions of the King’s servants were to be communicated by a circular

letter to all the Governors in America, the majority allowed the first

penned minute of Lord Hillsborough to be amended by words as kind and

lenient as could be proposed by some of us, and not without encouraging

expressions which were too evidently displeasing to his Lordship. The

quick departure of the packet carried off Lord Hillsborough’s circular

letter before it had got into circulation, and we were persuaded, on

reading the dispatch attentively, that it was not in the words nor form

of the last correction agreed to by the Cabinet. Thus it was evident

to us, who were overruled in the Cabinet, that the parts of the minute

which might be soothing to the Colonies were wholly omitted. Lord

Camden, in particular, much offended at this proceeding, mentioned the

circumstance to me, and immediately charged Lord Hillsborough with the

omission, and insisted on seeing the minute from which the circular

letter ought to have been drawn. Lord Hillsborough expressed his sorrow

that the packet was sailed; but that he was certain that the circular

was drawn conformably to the minute.

The present Lord Camden gave me leave to copy the following papers,

which passed between his father and Lord Hillsborough on this occasion,

and which I had particularly desired his Lordship to search for from

among his father’s papers.

(Copy.)

From Lord Chancellor (Camden) to the Earl of Hillsborough, Secretary

for the American Department.

“Lord Chancellor presents his compliments to Lord Hillsborough, and

begs leave to know whether the Circular Letter to the Governors in

America, explaining the conduct of the King’s servants in respect to

the dispute between Great Britain and the Colonies, is despatched or

not; because Lord Chancellor has material objections to the draught

which came first to his hands the day before yesterday.”

“Lincoln’s Inn Fields, June 9, 1769.”

* * * * *

(Copy.)

“Lord Hillsborough presents his compliments to Lord Chancellor, and

is sorry the Circular Letter has been long despatched. He wrote and

sent it immediately after the Cabinet; nor can he conceive what can be

his Lordship’s objections to it, as it is exactly conformable to the

minute, and as near as possible in the same words.”

“Hanover Square, June 9, 1769.”

* * * * *

(Copy.)

“Lord Hillsborough, conceiving that Lord Chancellor means to have the

rough draught of the Minute of Cabinet taken the first of May, he

spent half the day in looking for it, and cannot find it, although

he supposes he still has it; but having the fair draught which he

communicated to his Lordship and the other Lords, and laid before

the King, and which is conformable to the rough draught, he has not

attended to the preservation of the latter. Enclosed he has the honour

to send a copy of the Minute No. 1, and also a copy of the Circular

Letter No. 2, which he hopes Lord Chancellor upon reconsideration will

approve.”

“Hanover Square, Saturday night.”

* * * * *

(Copy.)

Lord Chancellor to Lord Hillsborough. No date,--but either a day or two

after the preceding _necessarily_.

“MY LORD,

“I had the honour of receiving your Lordship’s note with copies of the

Minute and the Circular Letter, and am sorry to say that I cannot bring

myself to approve the Letter, though I have considered and considered

it with the utmost attention.

“I wish your Lordship had not mislaid the original Minute; however, I

do not remember the first sentence of the fair draught to have been

part of that original, and so I told your Lordship when you were

pleased to show me the draught a day or two after the meeting. All that

I mean to observe to your Lordship upon that subject is, that this

sentence was not a part of the original Minute, nor in my poor judgment

necessary to have been made a part of it.

“But the principal objection, wherein I possibly may be mistaken, is

to the Letter, which ought to have been founded on the Minute, and

it is this, that the Letter does not communicate that opinion which

is expressed in the second paragraph of the Minute, and which the

Secretary of State is authorized to impart both by his conversation and

correspondence.

“The communication of that opinion was the measure; if that has

not been made, the measure has not been pursued, and therefore your

Lordship will forgive me for saying, that though I am responsible for

the Minute as it was taken down, I am not for the Letter.

“I confess that I do not expect this Letter will give much satisfaction

to America; perhaps the Minute might: but as the opportunity of trying

what effect that might have produced is lost, I can only say that I am

sorry it was not in my power to submit my sentiments to your Lordship

before the Letter was sent.”

* * * * *

(No. 1.)

“At a meeting of the King’s servants at Lord Weymouth’s office, 1st

May, 1769.

Present,

Lord Chancellor.

Duke of Grafton.

Lord Rochford.

Lord North.

Lord President.

Lord Granby.

Lord Weymouth.

General Conway.

Lord Hillsborough.

“It is the unanimous opinion of the Lords present to submit to his

Majesty, as their advice, that no measure should be taken which can

any way derogate from the legislative authority of Great Britain over

the Colonies; but that the Secretary of State in his correspondence

and conversation be permitted to state it as the opinion of the King’s

servants, that it is by no means the intention of Administration, nor

do they think it expedient or for the interest of Great Britain or

America, to propose or consent to the laying any further taxes upon

America for the purpose of raising a revenue; and that it is at present

their intention to propose in the next session of Parliament to take

off the duties upon paper, glass, and colours imported into America,

upon consideration of such duties having been laid contrary to the true

principles of commerce.”

* * * * *

(No. 2.)

CIRCULAR.

“Whitehall, May 13, 1769.

“SIR,

“Inclosed I send you the gracious speech made by the King to his

Parliament at the close of the session on Tuesday last.

“What his Majesty is pleased to say, in relation to the measures which

have been pursued in North America, will not escape your notice,

as the satisfaction his Majesty expresses in the approbation his

Parliament has given to them, and the assurance of their firm support

in the prosecution of them, together with his royal opinion of the

great advantages that will probably accrue from the concurrence of

every branch of the legislature in the resolution of maintaining a

due execution of the laws, cannot fail to produce the most salutary

effects. From hence it will be understood that the whole legislature

concur in the opinion adopted by his Majesty’s servants, that no

measure ought to be taken which can any way derogate from the

legislative authority of Great Britain over the Colonies; but I can

take upon me to assure you, notwithstanding insinuations to the

contrary from men with factious and seditious views, that his Majesty’s

present Administration have at no time entertained a design to propose

to Parliament to lay any further taxes upon America for the purpose

of raising a revenue, and that it is at present their intention to

propose, in the next session of Parliament, to take off the duties upon

glass, paper, and colours, upon consideration of such duties having

been laid contrary to the true principles of commerce.

“These, sir, have always been, and still are, the sentiments of his

Majesty’s present servants, and the principles by which their conduct

in respect to America have been governed; and his Majesty relies upon

your prudence and fidelity for such an explanation of his measures

as may tend to remove the prejudices which have been excited by the

misrepresentations of those who are enemies to the peace of Great

Britain and her Colonies, and to re-establish that mutual confidence

and affection upon which the safety and glory of the British empire

depend.

“I am, &c.,

(Signed) “HILLSBOROUGH.”

* * * * *

This unfortunate and unwarrantable Letter (to give it no harsher

epithet) of Lord Hillsborough to the Governors in the different

Colonies, was, many years after, the subject of discourse between Lord

Camden and myself. This Circular was calculated to do all mischief,

when our real Minute might have paved the way to some good. Besides

many other objectionable points, how could Lord Hillsborough venture to

assert in the first line of this Letter the word _unanimous_? for he

could not have so soon forgotten that there was but one single voice

for the measure more than was the number of those who were against it.

You will readily imagine that on this defeat in the Cabinet I

considered myself no longer possessed of that weight which had been

allowed to me before in these meetings, especially as the proposal

was on a matter of finance, more particularly belonging to my

department. My resolution was soon taken to withdraw myself from my

office, which was become very uncomfortable and irksome to me, on

the first favourable opportunity that offered. The resistance to any

further steps calculated to alienate the Colonies would probably

have furnished good ground for my retreat; but, while I remained in

office, none was proposed. I had occasion, however, to look about me,

and to tread my way with more wary steps than I had hitherto done.

It led me plainly to perceive that from the time of Lord Camden’s

altercation with Lord Hillsborough, the former Minister had sunk much

in the royal estimation. As to myself, there was no alteration in his

Majesty’s condescending goodness; but though this was not diminished,

I was sensible that his Majesty was more forward to dictate his will

to me, than to inquire first my opinion on any measure that was to be

considered, as had been his usual practice. My tame submission to be

overruled in Cabinet might give the King’s friends an idea that I might

be more pliant, and rest my favour on their support. But they knew

me little who thus judged of my temper; nor did they imagine that an

honourable liberation from the Treasury was of all others the thought

on which I indulged my hope. To have offered to resign while the

spirit of petitioning was so violent in many counties, would have been

highly blameable in me; for the petitions were directed against the

Administration and the Parliament, which had supported us. Other causes

brought forward my resignation, and at a time when the sting of these

petitions was no longer so much to be feared.

On the 24th of June, 1769, I married Elizabeth, third daughter of Sir

Richard and Lady Mary Wrottesley, whose merit as a wife, tenderness

and affection as a mother of a numerous family, and exemplary conduct

through life, need not be related to you. In a week or ten days

after I went from Woburn, accompanied by the Duke of Bedford, to the

installation at Cambridge, where, in the preceding year, on the death

of the Duke of Newcastle, the University had done me the honour of

electing me as Chancellor to succeed his Grace. That ceremony being

over, I returned to London, where I first heard that Lord Chatham was

so well recovered as to be expected to attend the King’s next levee.

Lord Camden had seen him, and, I think, the day before his appearing

mentioned to me Lord Chatham’s intention. Lord Camden informed me that

he was far from being well pleased, but did not enter into particulars,

except that he considered my marriage to be quite political; and it was

without effect that Lord Chancellor laboured to assure him that it was

otherwise, and that he could answer that I was as desirous as ever of

seeing his Lordship again taking the lead in the King’s Administration.

This neglect on the part of Lord Chatham piqued me much. I had surely a

claim to some notice on his recovery, when at his earnest solicitation

I embarked in an arduous post when he was incapable of business of any

sort; and if Lord Chatham wished to receive the state of political

matters, I hope that it is not saying too much that he ought to have

requested it of me. He chose the contrary; and even in the King’s

outer-room, where we met before the levee, when I went up to him with

civility and ease, he received me with cold politeness; and from St.

James’s called and left his name at my door.

On my returning home I took down a minute of this occurrence of the

day, which I have preserved. It runs thus:--

“July 7, 1769.

“Lord Chatham waited on the King for the first time since his long

confinement, was graciously received at the levee, and was desired to

stay after it was over, when the King sent for him into the closet. His

Majesty took the opportunity of assuring him how much he was concerned

that the ill state of his health had been the occasion of his quitting

the King’s service. His Lordship answered, that his Majesty must feel

that in his infirm state he must have stood under the most embarrassing

difficulties, holding an office of such consequence, and unable to give

his approbation to measures that he thought salutary, or his dissent

to those which appeared to him to have another tendency; that he was

unwilling to go into particulars; yet he could not think that one

especially had been managed in the manner it might have been, for if it

had been despised thoroughly at the outset, it never could have been

attended with the disagreeable consequences which have happened, but

that it was too late now to look back.

“The Indian transaction was also found fault with. His Lordship,

besides, observed, that their general courts were got upon the worst

of footings, exercising the conduct of little parliaments; that he

wondered that the inspectors were not sent to three different places.

There were also other observations on the head of India. His Lordship

added, that he doubted whether his health would ever again allow him to

attend Parliament; but if it did, and if he should give his dissent to

any measure, that his Majesty would be indulgent enough to believe that

it would not arise from any personal consideration; for, he protested

to his Majesty, as Lord Chatham, he had not a tittle to find fault with

in the conduct of any one individual, and that his Majesty might be

assured that it could not arise from ambition, as he felt so strongly

the weak state from which he was recovering, and which might daily

threaten him, that office, therefore, of any sort could no longer be

desireable to him.”

* * * * *

From this time until the meeting of Parliament I saw no more of Lord

Chatham. His suspicions of me were probably too firmly rooted to be

removed by Lord Camden’s assurances that they were groundless. His

Lordship desired no further interview; and I had such a sense of the

unkindness and injustice of such a treatment, when I thought that I

had a claim for the most friendly, that I was not disposed to seek any

explanation.

Lord Camden and myself, unfortunately, saw less of each other than in

other summers; both of us profiting, by a retreat into the country, of

the leisure which a recess from Chancery and Treasury business offered.

The affair of petitions was becoming every day more serious, increasing

in number; the consequences were ever uppermost in my thoughts. Mr.

Stonehewer and a few friends were with us at Wakefield Lodge; with

them I conversed much on all that I foresaw of mischief from these

intemperate petitions, and I shall lay before you the copy, which I

have in Mr. Stonehewer’s hand-writing, of the letter which I wrote,

wishing to consult Lord Camden, the lawyer as well as the friend from

whom I might expect the soundest advice, well convinced that his to me

came on all occasions from the sincerity of his heart.

“Wakefield Lodge, August 29, 1769.

“MY DEAR LORD,

“I have made use of the leisure which the Treasury holidays have given

me to revolve over here in quiet such points as our duty seemed to call

upon us, as public men, most to give attention to. The petitions, I

must say, have greatly engrossed and puzzled my thoughts; indeed, the

conduct on this strange occasion, which has been stirred up by the envy

and malice of Opposition, without a single thought on its pernicious

consequences hereafter, appears to me to be most delicate indeed.

“I am alarmed, I own to your Lordship, at the mischief that may from

this source, before it is long, arise to this constitution, which those

who are now in office will heartily, I am convinced, join in endeavours

to deliver down to their successors as pure as they received it. No

trouble will stop us in this purpose, and most essential part our duty;

nor shall we be afraid to wade through the rage of popular clamour for

the moment, if on consideration any effort of that sort shall appear to

be necessary. I am not easy in my mind, nor can I be so until I know

at bottom what are the penalties these gentlemen who have been the

promoters of these steps have made themselves liable to, or how far

they are criminal. When we have this from authority the King’s servants

will consider the _State part_ of it, how far the petitions themselves

can be allowed to sleep without some notice, having been delivered to,

and of course known to, the Crown,--especially as the matter of these

petitions is defamatory of Parliament itself, and may perhaps prove to

be a violation of the constitution. I profess to your Lordship openly,

that I do not see how they can lie wholly locked up in an office, and

no farther produced or mentioned.

“My thoughts have been running on this business both day and night. I

wish but to do right, and shall never be afraid to meet difficulty on

_good ground_; and some there must be if an active measure is resolved

upon: but believe me, that great part of that vanishes when a measure,

of itself right, is known to be cordially approved of and determined by

the King’s principal servants. If nothing is to be done, and that it

shall be thought most judicious to let the consideration wholly drop,

for God’s sake let it not be before every point relating to it shall

have been maturely weighed by us! Let it not be said that innovations

of a dangerous tendency, injurious to Parliament and dangerous to

the constitution, have been established in these times, because the

Ministers have not attended to the nature of them, or have been too

inactive to resist such wicked measures.

“This subject is too much and too closely connected with the laws, and

indeed with the very being, in my opinion, of this constitution, for me

not to want the advice and assistance of those who love it as much as

myself, and who know it so infinitely more. It was a disappointment to

me not to meet your Lordship during the four days of last week which I

passed in London. My mind was too full for me not to trouble you with

this letter. Be so good as to give me your thoughts on the _present

state_ of this weighty business; they will greatly relieve mine,

although they can only be your thoughts on the _present_ state of it,

as I feel that it is not prepared nor digested enough to be yet decided

upon. The Middlesex and the City petitions your Lordship has seen;

Surrey has now gone to the grievances only of the right of election

violated, as they complain. One will come from Worcester, and in

Wiltshire the _pardon of the chairman_ is added,--the petition mostly

encouraged by our old friends Popham and Beckford; others will probably

come.

“The opinion in form of the King’s servants will of course be taken,

if any proceeding is to be entered upon. I have desired in my case a

person under me to be collecting the different facts and proofs; if not

wanted by them, they will be satisfactory to myself.

“You know the difficulties we have had about the Board of Trade

Council; I will submit this arrangement to you, and if your Lordship

approves of it, I think that I can bring the _whole_ about if I

have your leave to _try_. Mr. Justice Clive’s infirmities render

it indispensable for the King to make him the usual provision on

retiring; he might even be told that some gentlemen who have felt the

inconvenience of it have determined to move in Parliament what would

be most disagreeable to him, and would in fact reflect on us. Indeed,

my dear Lord, I hear from all quarters the necessity of this. Moreton

might succeed him; Thurlow to him; and our friend Jackson come to the

post of all others I most wish to see him in. Will you allow me to set

about it? It requires some management, but I think if left to myself I

shall succeed.

“I have already made this too long a letter to trouble your Lordship

with further particulars on this second subject.

“I have the honour to be, &c.,

GRAFTON.

“P.S.--I shall be sincerely rejoiced to hear the little man is

recovered.”

* * * * *

Though I have inserted this letter of mine, I should certainly wish

to correct some sentiments therein expressed. You will partake in my

disappointment, I am confident, when I acquaint you that I have no

opinion to lay before you from this eminent and constitutional lawyer,

whose sentiments on so peculiar a state of things, as well as his

advice how to proceed upon them, would have been so satisfactory to

myself at the time, and to the world in every age. But to deliver, on

recollection only, the sentiments of a man of his high character and

authority on so serious a subject, would be in me arrogant, and little

suited to that respect I shall ever attach to the memory of my friend.

Lord Camden’s answer to my letter was in these words:--

“MY DEAR LORD,

“I have the honour of your Grace’s letter, which I have read over,

and considered with my best attention; but the subject being new and

unexpected, I am not able at present to form any opinion till I have

given it a further consideration; and I should be unwilling to commit

my crude thoughts to paper, which indeed would not be worth your

Grace’s perusal, and which perhaps I might change myself upon second

thoughts. As I am not honoured with any intercourse with any of the

King’s servants, except now and then with your Grace, I should be very

glad to have a personal interview with your Grace, when we should both

be able to explain ourselves with more freedom and confidence than can

be uttered or communicated by letter. I go to-day to Camden Place,

and except a short excursion or two to Deal, and into Sussex, shall

remain there till the 10th, the day for proroguing the Parliament. So

that if your Grace will honour me with an appointment, I will wait on

you in London, at your own time and place, when I shall be ready to

communicate my poor opinions to your Grace, as well on the main article

of your letter, as the law arrangement which your Grace is pleased to

propose.

“I have the honour to be, &c.,

“CAMDEN.”

“September 1, 1769.”

“I am much obliged to your Grace for inquiring after my little boy. He

is most fortunately recovered.”

* * * * *

The only remark I shall make on this letter is, that it was less

cordial than any Lord Camden ever wrote to me either before or since.

The coolness between Lord Chatham and myself gave him much vexation,

and the general posture of affairs increased his uneasiness. We met

in London about the middle of September, and after a long and general

consideration of all that appertained to the petitions, and how far

they gave necessary ground for more special notice, we agreed that

in the disposition of the nation it would be wise to avoid, if

possible, every step that could irritate; and that to leave the spirit

to evaporate, as there were hopes that it might, would be the most

expedient measure to adopt.

His Majesty had been graciously pleased at this time to summon a

Chapter of the Garter, in order to invest me with the insignia of the

Order; and the King did me the honour to observe, that he was pleased

to have the greater satisfaction in conferring that favour, as I was

one of the very few who had received it unsolicited. The Order of the

Garter is a high distinction still, though certainly it is somewhat

dropped from the ancient celebrity by the addition that was made to the

number of the Knights some years after this.

In this month we were involved in a very serious and delicate business,

which appeared at one time to be big with alarming consequences. A

French frigate had come into the Downs without paying the compliment to

his Majesty’s ships which the general instructions from the Admiralty

to all commanders of ships direct them to require; but with which no

nation except the Dutch ever complied,--and they in consequence of a

treaty. An officer from a King’s ship went on board the French frigate,

remonstrating with the commander on his conduct, and assuring him that

he must insist on the compliment; but, meeting with no satisfactory

answer, the lieutenant of our ship soon fired his first shot a-head of

the French ship, and on perceiving no notice to be taken of his gun, he

fired into the Frenchman with ball, and, as it was said, killed one of

the men.

The proceeding was warmly resented by the Court of France, who required

the fullest satisfaction for the affront, together with the dismissal

_from the service_ of _the officer_ who had presumed, in time of

perfect peace, to fire into a frigate belonging to the French King.

Office papers were ransacked for precedents to justify the claim; few

were found, and the paucity of these did not assist our cause. From

the reign of Charles the Second, when a long and serious altercation

took place on a similar occasion, and which may be found in the

Memoirs of M. d’Estrades, and of his embassy here, one single instance

(except the present) was found. This instance fell out while the Duke

of Newcastle was Secretary of State, who had, on the complaint of the

French Court, recommended to his late Majesty to break Lieutenant

(afterwards Admiral) Smith: as soon as the Ambassador had acquainted

his Court, Mr. Smith was restored to rank, and quickly promoted.

Finding that there was so little ground on precedent, it became our

duty, as Ministers of the Crown, to get rid of this unpleasant incident

in the best manner we were able, provided the national honour, and

that of the flag, should not suffer in the explanation. Lord Weymouth

reported to the Cabinet that, in the audience which he gave M. de

Châtelet, his reply upon every memorial, and his language every day

became more resolute, by insisting on a suitable satisfaction for the

affront which had been done to the King, his master’s dignity. It was

Lord Weymouth’s opinion also, that if we could find out some expedient,

at the same time to save our own credit, the Ambassador would close

with it. Lord Weymouth thought, from my knowledge of M. de Châtelet,

that I might _unofficially_ hold with him a language tending to bring

about an arrangement which might save the honour of both parties. At

the desire of the Cabinet I undertook it, hoping that Sir Edward Hawke

would call on me the next morning, and state fully to me what, in his

opinion, would, and what would not, save the honour of the navy and the

lustre of the British flag.

In point of justice not one word can be said; but it may be a question

whether the ideal sovereignty of the narrow seas be not essential in

elevating the enthusiastic courage of our seamen; though they have

now, in the year I am writing, and, I hope, will ever have the best of

pleas, from their own incredible superiority in skill and bravery over

those of any other country.

The morning after the meeting of the King’s servants, Sir Edward called

on me early, and, in a long conversation, we discussed every means that

could be devised to answer the present purpose; and at length agreed

upon one expedient, of which I made successful use in my visit to the

French Ambassador, on whom I called directly, and began by stating to

him the object of my visit, namely, to endeavour, by a frank and open

conversation with him, to hit off some means of preventing a breach

between our two countries; and, in the course of our interview, I

desired him, particularly, not to allow himself to be led away with

false notions of the disposition of our country from the specimen he

had observed of the disposition to riot and disorder, and to give me

credit, when I assured him that all these would vanish on the breaking

out of a war, especially on ground so popular as that of the honour of

the flag, to carry which on with spirit every Englishman would part

with his last shilling. He replied, that peace was the object of his

wish, as much as I had professed it to be mine. Besides, recapitulating

all that had passed with Lord Weymouth, he would impart this to me,

as Duke of Grafton, “that nothing could urge Louis the Fifteenth

into another war, except where his honour was concerned, and that he

personally felt the present affront most sensibly;” he added, “that M.

de Choiseul’s interest would suffer greatly by a war, and that he would

show his disposition to avoid it, if such did present itself.”

The Ambassador proposed various schemes for reconciliation; but none

of them came within my own notions of what might have been admissible

by the nation. Those which I first mentioned met with no better

reception from M. de Châtelet; and, after a long parley of two hours,

we were near parting, when I thought I might lay before him, as the

only means, the very proposal I had settled with Sir Edward Hawke. It

was this, that the answer to the French King’s complaint, should be, to

say that his Majesty could not do so great an injustice to a lieutenant

in his service, as to punish him without hearing his account of this

unfortunate transaction; and that, the officer having now sailed to the

East Indies, such an account could not be obtained till the return of

the lieutenant. I added, to M. de Châtelet, that his return would not

be expected for three years, when the affair might be supposed to have

slipped into oblivion. The Ambassador, after a little consideration,

told me that he liked the proposal, and would do his endeavours to make

it palatable to the Duc de Choiseul.

This arrangement succeeded so fully, that we have never heard one word

more of the business, since the expedient was accepted. I do not know

that I was ever so much elated as, in my walk home, turning in my

thoughts the effects of my visit, and reflecting on the misery which

probably would be warded off from the heads of so many individuals and

families. I cannot give too full testimony of the candour and zeal

with which the Ambassador took up the business, and recommended the

expedient to his Court; his influence prevailed, and the recollection

of this conduct increased my concern on hearing of the horrid death

of him and his amiable lady upon a scaffold, during the frenzy of the

Revolutions in France.

You recollect, my dear Euston, the resolution I had formed of retiring

from my situation, whenever I could find the moment favourable; as,

also, my remark on the visible and rapid decline of my friend Lord

Camden’s favour at St. James’s. This latter circumstance served to

confirm me strongly in the former; for I was not so blinded, as not

to feel the ground around me to be treacherous and unsafe. Though the

closet was still favourable and afforded all apparent support, yet I

probably owed it to those to whom my principles could never be quite

congenial, and who might, on some occasion where we differed, show to

me my presumption and my insignificance, particularly as they expressed

their attachment strongly, because _I was emancipated from the chains

of Lord Chatham and the burthen of Lord Camden_.

Parliament was to meet on the 9th of January, 1770. The necessity of

having a Chancellor to vindicate the law authority of the Cabinet

was dinned into my ears in most companies I frequented; and it was

particularly remarked, that Mr. Charles Yorke had taken no part in

the whole business of the Middlesex election that need preclude him

from joining in opinion with the decisions of the Commons. Such

insinuations were very irksome to me; and, about the Court, I was still

more harassed with them. At last, when I was passing a few Christmas

holidays at Euston, Lords Gower and Weymouth came down on a visit.

They informed me, that the King, on hearing their intention of going

to Euston, had expressly directed them to say, that the continuance of

the Lord Chancellor in his office could not be justified, and that the

Government would be too much lowered by the Great Seal appearing in

Opposition, and his Majesty hoped that I should assent to his removal,

and approve of an offer being made to Mr. Yorke. My answer, as well as

I recollect, was, that, though it did not become me to argue against

his Majesty’s remarks on the present peculiar state of the Great

Seal, I must humbly request that I might be in no way instrumental in

dismissing Lord Camden.

In a few days after my arrival in London, the session opened, when the

Lord Chancellor spoke warmly in support of Lord Chatham’s opposition

to the address, and, while we were in the House, Lord Camden told me,

that he was sensible that the Seal must be taken from him, though he

had no intention to resign it. At St. James’s, it was at once decided

that the Seal should be demanded; but, at my request, Lord Camden held

it on for some days, merely for the convenience of Government, during

the negotiation for a respectable successor. No person will deny that

Mr. Charles Yorke, Sir Eardley Wilmot, and Mr. De Grey, would any of

them have filled the high office of Lord Chancellor with the full

approbation of Westminster Hall. They were all three thought of for it,

though Sir Eardley’s impaired state of health, accompanied by an humble

diffidence of himself, which had been a distinguishing mark in his

character through life, forbad all hopes of his acceptance.

While I continued in office, it was my duty, as well as desire, to

exert myself in endeavouring to render the King’s Administration as

respectable as I was able. Though I lamented and felt grievously the

loss of Lord Camden’s support, from which I derived so much comfort

and assistance, yet I was satisfied that the lawyers I have mentioned

were men equal to discharge the duties of a Chancellor. I therefore

received the King’s commands to write to Mr. Yorke directly. I saw

him the next day. He received the offer of the Great Seal with much

gratitude to his Majesty, but hoped that he should be allowed to return

his answer when he should have given it a day’s consideration. Mr.

Charles Yorke remained with me between two and three hours, dwelling

much on the whole of his own political thoughts and conduct, together

with a comment on the principal public occurrences of the present

reign. When he came to make remarks on the actual state of things,

after speaking with much regard of many in Administration, he said,

that it was essential to him to be informed from me, whether I was open

to a negotiation for extending the Administration, so as to comprehend

those with whom I had formerly, and he constantly, wished to agree. My

answer was, that he could not desire more earnestly than myself to see

an Administration as comprehensive as possible, and that this object

could only be brought about by the reunion of the Whigs, adding, that I

should be happy to have his assistance to effect it. Mr. Yorke appeared

to be pleased with this answer, and, after many civilities on both

sides, we parted.