Perplexity of the “Triumvirate.”--Lord Bute’s unsuccessful
Manœuvres.--Lord Halifax and Mr. Grenville remonstrate with the
King.--The Duchess of Bedford’s animosity to Lord Bute and the
Princess of Wales.--Schemes of the Bedford Faction.--Mr. Pitt
sent for by the King.--Negotiation with the former.--The Treaty
broken off.--Causes of the Rupture.--The King’s Account of his
Interviews with Pitt.--Pitt’s Proposals.--Proscriptions.--
Machinations of Lord Sandwich.--Ministerial Arrangements.--
Grenville’s Power.--Lord Temple’s Conduct.
But it was not the affair of Wilkes which had alone perplexed the
Triumvirate. They found they were by no means in the confidence of the
King. He was continually suggesting new measures to them, which plainly
came from a hidden quarter. A fortnight before the death of Lord
Egremont, his Majesty had hinted to Grenville that he wished to prevail
on Lord Hardwicke to return, if not to his service, at least to his
councils. Whether the blow received from the Common Pleas had alarmed
the Favourite (who had made but a very short stay at Harrowgate), and
had warned him to look out for more support; or whether he thought
the three ministers insufficient; or whether, which is most likely,
he wished already to get rid of them, especially having detected the
underhand practices of Grenville against his son’s patent;--in short,
whatever was the motive, Grenville could not be ignorant who was
author of the advice, and only replied, _it would not do_. The King
insisted, and the overture was made; Hardwicke rejected it, and said he
would not abandon Newcastle. The King then commanded the same trial to
be made on Newcastle, but with exclusion of Mr. Pitt; an early proof
of those crooked councils of division with which the Favourite was
afterwards so often charged, and which were so agreeable to the King’s
natural insincerity. Newcastle haughtily refused the offers made to
him. Still were the King’s discourses dark and ambiguous; and, though
affecting to call out for new strength by extending preferments, he had
refused, at Grenville’s recommendation, to make the Duke of Leeds[350]
President of the Council, and Lord Hyde[351] Chief Justice in Eyre.
On this behaviour the three ministers had determined to bring his
Majesty to an explanation. Lord Halifax broke the ice; complained
of their not having his countenance, and concluded with telling him
that he had but three options: to support them; to try a coalition of
parties, which was impracticable; or to surrender himself, bound hand
and foot, to Mr. Pitt. Mr. Grenville went much farther; reproached
him with violating the assurances he had given them that Lord Bute
should meddle no more, and with abandoning the ministers he had himself
chosen. The King renewed his professions, and promised to be firm to
them. Grenville said he should go into the country for a fortnight,
and begged the King to take his final resolution against that time. At
Grenville’s return the King had renewed his protestations, and, the
very day before Lord Egremont died, Grenville had been to assure him
of the King’s promise to be true to them; but, on the 25th, Grenville,
through great professions to him, perceived that his Majesty was not
without a disposition of recalling Pitt, against which Grenville made a
warm, not to say indecent, remonstrance and protest.
The Bedfords in the interim had totally renounced Bute. The Duchess had
carried her animosity still higher, and would not, on her return from
the French embassy, be prevailed on to pay her duty to the Princess of
Wales. Casting about for allies (for Grenville and Lord Halifax they
despised), the Bedford faction had not been without views of connecting
with the Duke of Cumberland and Newcastle; and his Royal Highness
had at this very juncture been invited to Woburn. The death of Lord
Egremont seeming to dissolve that ministry, a bolder stroke was struck;
and the Bedfords, hoping under him to get possession of the government,
determined to attempt making Mr. Pitt minister. With this view Rigby,
in the most private and mysterious manner, went down to Woodstock, and
sent for the Duke of Bedford, who was then at Blenheim, and persuaded
him to go directly to town to the King, and advise him to send for Mr.
Pitt.[352] Lord Shelburne, who in his separate department had affected
to act minister too, had assured them that this would not be opposed by
Lord Bute; but had not trusted them, or was not trusted himself, with
Lord Bute’s real disposition that way. Rigby had no sooner lighted the
match than he left the mine to take fire, and retired to his own house
in the country; while the Duke of Bedford posted to the King, and told
him, that, as he had made peace abroad, he must now make it at home,
and that could only be effected by sending for Mr. Pitt.
Lord Bute, hearing this measure had been prescribed by the Duke of
Bedford, thought it wiser to have the merit of it himself. Mr. Pitt,
though trusting to the clamour of party for support, had seldom openly
courted it; and, since he had had such eminent services to boast, had
affected to despise it. He had kept clear of all transactions with
Wilkes, and had condemned Lord Temple’s connection with him, and, yet
more, his visits to that incendiary in the Tower. Mr. Pitt’s amity
might reconcile the people, and no man was so accommodating a partner
in power; Pitt having few or no dependents, and scorning to meddle in
the distribution of common places and preferments. On these grounds
the Favourite, through the intervention of Alderman Beckford, entered
into a negotiation with Mr. Pitt, and, finding facilities there beyond
his most sanguine hopes, induced the King to send for that formidable
dictator.
It was on the 28th of August that Mr. Grenville, arriving at Buckingham
House, was struck with the apparition of Mr. Pitt’s chair and servants
in the Court. This was the first notice he or the public received of a
phenomenon so little expected, at least by the latter.
Let it be remarked here, that I do not pretend to give a perfect and
entire account of the following negotiation. No transaction was ever
involved in more contradictions and mystery; for, though the retainers
of both sides spoke out, and amply, their narratives disagreed
materially, and the exact truth was never fully known. From all I could
collect then or since, and from explanations which I have gathered by
commenting on the subsequent behaviour of the actors, I believe the
ensuing relation is pretty near the truth.
The Bedfords had sent Calcraft to Hayes[353] to sound how Mr. Pitt
stood affected to them, and Calcraft returned with a most favourable
account. On this assurance had the Duke of Bedford been pushed on the
measure of advising the recall of Mr. Pitt. Lord Bute had not been
less encouraged by the report of Alderman Beckford, for Mr. Pitt had
determined, if ever he should return to Court, not to make himself
unwelcome there. The Favourite, therefore, saw him privately at his
house in Jermyn-street before he saw the King, and advised him not
to propose Lord Temple for the Treasury, which would break off the
negotiation. Pitt thanked him, but did not take his advice,--and on
this rock undoubtedly did the treaty split; for all the variations I
have hinted at, were but circumstances artfully seized or feigned to
colour the rupture, or misrepresent it.
The Favourite deceived, or deceiving himself, brought about the
interview, as I have said, between the King and Mr. Pitt. It lasted
three hours, and the bargain was universally thought concluded. But the
King had not only been revolted at Mr. Pitt’s terms, though without
owning it, but Mr. Pitt had had the sagacity to discover his Majesty’s
repugnance; and therefore not only carried on the farce of returning
to Court the next day, but was so dexterous as to see the Duke of
Newcastle, with whose interests he had by no means clogged his first
demands; and assuring his Grace of his zeal for his service, went
back to the King with a schedule of terms extremely enlarged. These
were peremptorily rejected, and the treaty broke off, on pretences
which the one had not meaned to ask, nor the other cared whether he
granted or refused. The Treasury for Lord Temple was the real stone of
offence.[354]
But no sooner was the rupture known, than all tongues were let loose
to inquire, guess, invent, or assign causes. The King detailed his
conversation with Mr. Pitt to all that came about him--and almost all
added to it, as their interest or malice suggested. Mr. Pitt saw very
few, and to fewer would disclose any circumstances. He soon found that
he could not speak without flatly contradicting what his Majesty had
said, or was reported to have said. No wonder the transaction came
forth loaded with uncertainties and inconsistence!
The substance reported was, that Mr. Pitt had proscribed almost all the
ministry then existing, and yet had been very cool in recommendations
of the Opposition. The first part was not very credible, for though
his haughtiness rendered him indifferent to those who affected to
call themselves his party, his nature, on the other hand, was not
vindictive: and it was true, that he had not been worse treated by
the one set than by the other. On his second audience, I believe it
might be true to a good degree that he had been dictatorial; but at
first he had been far more moderate. However, it was given out that he
proscribed all who had made, or had voted for the peace: whereas he had
spoken tenderly of some of the negotiators; and had said of the treaty
itself, that he would take it, and make the best he could of it.
The King himself relating the two conversations, took care to dwell
on any circumstances that would most affect the persons to whom he
made the confidence. Thus, to Lord Hertford, at that time Lord of the
Bedchamber in waiting, the King said, “Mr. Pitt proscribed several,
particularly your friend Lord Powis:[355] I told him, continued his
Majesty, that he might restore Lord George Cavendish;[356] but Lord
Powis had stuck by me, and I never would abandon him.[357] I will
stand by those who have stood by me. He said little,” continued the
King, “of Legge (another of Lord Hertford’s friends, consequently the
King intended Legge should be informed), only, having recommended Lord
Temple for the Treasury, Mr. Pitt said, Mr. Legge may be his Chancellor
of the Exchequer, if he pleases--if not, _Lord Temple will name
another_. He surprised me,” pursued the King to Lord Hertford, “with
saying still less of your relation the Duke of Grafton; and more, with
crying up to me for one of the first men of business in the kingdom,
Lord Rockingham,[358] whom he intended for First Lord of the Admiralty.
I thought,” said his Majesty, “I had not two men in my bedchamber of
less parts than Lord Rockingham.” The King spoke handsomely of both
the Dukes of Grafton and Devonshire, and laid his treatment of the
latter on passion, that Duke not having made the least excuse for not
coming to council when he had been summoned. Knowing that Lord Hertford
was not well with Fox, the King affirmed that he had taken the latter
last winter against his inclination; and he told Lord Hertford that
the Duke of Newcastle had urged the Duke of Bedford to make a worse
peace than Mr. Pitt had projected, and had promised to defend it: and
that the Duke of Devonshire had recommended to the Duke of Bedford to
make _any_ peace; and then, fearing to be reproached with that advice,
always avoided conversation with that Duke. “When he took leave of me,”
added the King, “Mr. Pitt said to me, Sir, the House of Commons will
not force me upon your Majesty, and I will never come into your service
against your consent.” “You see,” said Lord Hertford, when he repeated
this conversation to me, “that if they did not shut the King up, he
would talk enough to any body!”--but if they sometimes debarred him
from talking, he was now instructed to talk--and every grain he sowed
brought forth an hundred-fold.
I must observe that his Majesty had told Lady Holland, in the
drawing-room, that he should never forget Mr. Fox’s undertaking the
House of Commons and the Peace in the last winter. It is certain that
in this interview with Mr. Pitt, the King _proposed_ to take the
Paymaster’s place from Fox, and bestow it on George Grenville.
Of the persons really proscribed, the chief was Lord Mansfield. “He
is a Jacobite,” said Pitt, “and means sir, to ruin your family.” He
recommended Pratt for a peerage, and in future for the Chancellor’s
Seals; would have saved the Duke of Marlborough, as a young man
misled; Elliot, for having tried to preserve union between him and
Lord Bute; and of Lord Halifax he had said, “that he was a pretty
man, and, as in bad circumstances, might be Groom of the Stole or
Paymaster.” “The Duke of Newcastle,” he said, “would take any place
not of business.” Charles Townshend he proposed for Secretary of State
with himself. The Secretary at War should not be of consequence, as it
was now under Ellis,[359] that clerk of Fox the Paymaster, but should
depend on him whom his Majesty should think proper to command his army.
“Then,” said the King, “we shall agree in Lord Granby;” “or,” said
Pitt, “in Lord Albemarle.”[360] This was the sole approach he seemed to
make towards the Duke of Cumberland; but never would his Majesty have
trusted his army with a creature of his uncle.
Of Lord Gower Pitt spoke not favourably, having probably discovered
that it was the way to make his court to the Favourite, who, having
perceived that that Lord aimed at being a favourite himself, had taken
care to alienate the King’s mind from him. Rigby was not excepted for
mercy,[361] and Lord Sandwich much less. Of the Duke of Bedford Mr.
Pitt spoke properly, as of a man well-intentioned, but shamefully
misguided, and who might hereafter, if in proper hands, be useful to
Government. But nothing harsh did Pitt utter against the peace: he
would try to _meliorate_ it. Should a national spirit of inquiry arise,
he would not resist it. He had held the same language formerly on the
loss of Minorca: they were specious words then and now, but with no
sanguinary intentions.
When Calcraft was reproached by the Bedford faction with having
deceived them on Pitt’s disposition towards them, he could not evade
the charge. A breach ensued, and he remained attached to Mr. Pitt.
Sandwich, finding himself proscribed by Pitt, made advantage of the
moment, and exerting all his invention and industry, of which no
man possessed a larger receipt, he set himself to persuade men of
all denominations that they had been marked in black letters in the
dictator’s catalogue of pains and penalties. He even drew every man’s
character to himself, and selecting their faults or deficiencies,
ascribed to Mr. Pitt both the recapitulation and imaginary sentence
that followed it. Grenville and Lord Halifax caught the righteous
flame, and diffused it: Grenville even assembling the Commissioners of
the several boards, and assuring them, one and all, that they had been
condemned by Mr. Pitt to be cashiered. To Woburn, where the Duke of
Bedford was at this anxious moment detained by his royal visitor, the
Duke of Cumberland, Lord Sandwich wrote inflammatory letters, telling
Bedford that he was proscribed, and his peace to be attacked. The warm
little Duke caught fire; but Rigby, to whom Sandwich had made the same
report, doubted, and came to town, where he was either duped into, or
persuaded to join in the imposition.
Grenville was pressed by the King to remain minister, and did not
want to be pressed. The Duke of Bedford, in the hot fit of zeal and
resentment, accepted the post of President; and Shelburne, who had
shuffled round the compass with so ill success, and lost the favour of
Lord Bute, choosing now to adhere to Pitt, and resigning the seals,
they were bestowed on the only man who could replace, or excel him,
Lord Sandwich. It was fortunate for Grenville and union, that the
faction did not wish to place the Duke of Bedford at the head of the
Treasury,--but they could not trust his warmth and absurdities. In
Ireland he had disgusted everybody, and had gone so far as to tell the
Irish themselves that theirs was no Parliament. The Court had wished
to have Charles Townshend Secretary of State with Lord Halifax; but he
too, for that time, stuck to Mr. Pitt, and refused.
Thus, from a strange concurrence of jarring causes, there sprung up out
of great weakness a strong and cemented ministry, who all acquiesced in
the predominant power of Grenville. The Favourite hated, had tried to
shake him off, and he knew it. How much must his brother Temple have
been detested at Court, when, under all these humiliating aspects, it
was thought preferable to retain Grenville!
In truth, nothing could be more offensive than Lord Temple’s conduct,
whether considered in a public or private light. Opposition to his
factious views seemed to let him loose from all ties, all restraint
of principles. Of the truth of this assertion he, at the time I am
describing, gave a convincing proof. His brother George was at that
moment the object of his jealousy and resentment. He had, however, been
prevailed upon by his family, or rather by considerations of family,
to suffer Mr. Grenville to be rechosen for Buckingham; but on this
sole condition, that Mr. Grenville should give up a paper formerly
received from him. When Dr. Lyttelton, Bishop of Carlisle,[362] who had
negotiated this treaty, gave him the paper, he said, after reading it,
“It is true, I am bound in honour and by promise to make a firm entail
of my estate,--I will; but it shall be on my brother James.”[363] The
case was this: it had been discovered during the life of their uncle,
the late Lord Cobham, that he had made a flaw in the settlement of
his estate. A meeting of his nephews was held in the presence of his
sister,[364] and their mother, the late Lady Temple. She said, “My son
Richard is ill with my brother; if we tell my brother of this flaw, he
may make a new settlement, and give his fortune from my eldest son.”
George Grenville consented to keep the secret, provided his brother
gave him the most solemn promise in writing to resettle the estate
when he should come to it. Insensible to such a tie, and filled with
rancour, he had the mortification of seeing that very brother preserved
in power merely to his exclusion.
Other persons preferred on the new settlement were Lord Egmont to the
head of the Admiralty, and Lord Hyde to be joint-Postmaster.