George Townshend’s Circular Letter--Admiral Byng publishes
a Defence--The public mind prejudiced against him--Loss of
Oswego--Affair of the Hanoverian Soldier at Maidstone--The
King admits Lord Bute into the Prince’s Establishment--Fox
discontented with Newcastle--Offers to resign--Applies to the
Author--His audience with the King--Pitt’s demands--Prince of
Wales’s new Household--Pitt visits Lady Yarmouth--State of
Parties--Duke of Newcastle determines to resign--Pitt declines
acting with Fox--Negotiations for the formation of a new
Ministry--The designs of Fox to obstruct the formation of a new
Ministry defeated--Changes--Pitt becomes Prime Minister--Meeting
of Parliament.
Affairs at home wore the same troubled aspect. As addresses and
petitions were in vogue, and the approaching session likely to be
warm, George Townshend took the opportunity of writing a circular
letter to great boroughs and corporations, instructing them to
instruct their representatives to stickle for another Militia Bill.
Besides its being drawn in a wretched style, the impropriety of a
private man assuming to himself such dictatorial authority, and the
indecency of a man who had the last year so severely censured Mr.
Fox’s circular letter, were notorious. Townshend’s epistle met the
contempt it deserved.
Mr. Byng having notice to prepare for his trial, had demanded his
witnesses; and now added a list of thirty more, but they were
refused. Among those he summoned was Captain Young, who had been
one of his loudest censurers. If the step was injudicious, at least
it did not indicate any consciousness of guilt. Yet the people and
the Ministry continued to treat him as a criminal; and the former
reporting that he had endeavoured to escape, the latter increased
the strictness of his confinement. He complained to the Secretary
of the Admiralty of the rigorous treatment he received from Admiral
Townshend, the Governor of Greenwich. A creature of office was not
likely to feel more tenderness than his superiors; Cleland returned
the most insulting answers. Mr. Byng at last thought it time to
make representations as well as to adhere to his innocence. He
published his case. Of the engagement I shall not say a word, till
I come to give an account of his trial. Of the arts used to blacken
him, the pamphlet gave the strongest evidence, and had very great
effect in opening the eyes of mankind.
It appeared, that the Admiral’s own letter, which had served as the
great engine of his condemnation, had been mangled and altered in a
manner most unworthy of honest men, of gentlemen. Some parts were
omitted, by which others were rendered nonsense; other periods,
which gave the reasons of his behaviour, as obedient to his orders,
were perverted to speak the very language of cowardice,--for
instance, _making the best of my way to Gibraltar_ was substituted
to the genuine passage, _making my way to cover Gibraltar_. And
thus the Ministry sunk their own positive (and, by their neglect
of Minorca, grown necessary) orders, that he might appear to
have retired to save himself, not Gibraltar. Other preceding
dispatches the Admiral published in the same pamphlet, in which he
had represented the bad condition of the Fleet committed to him;
and with much reason concluded, those expostulations had been the
first causes of his ruin; they who had been guilty of the neglect
determining that the first discoverer should bear the punishment.
Pity and indignation took place. Mr. Byng was everywhere mentioned
with moderation, the Ministers with abhorrence. But three months
were to come before his trial. He was a prisoner, his adversaries
powerful. His pamphlet was forgotten; new slanders replaced the
old. I shall defer the prosecution of Mr. Byng’s story till the
following year, for though his trial began the end of December, no
material progress could be made in it.
But though the fate of Mr. Byng remained in suspense, the crisis
for the Ministers drew to a quicker termination, being hurried on
by several circumstances that heightened public discontent, and
which could not be imputed to the unhappy Admiral. Among these
incidents was the loss of the important fort of Oswego, which the
French seized and demolished before a design upon it was suspected.
Another was of Hanoverian growth, and happening under the eye of
the people, threatened very alarming consequences. There were
at this time five camps in England: one at Chatham, under Lord
George Sackville; another in Dorsetshire; the artillery at Byfleet
in Surrey, commanded by the Duke of Marlborough, Master of the
Ordnance; the Hessians at Winchester; the Hanoverians at Coxheath,
near Maidstone. The sobriety and devotion of the foreigners had
been remarkable, and amid such a scene of uneasiness and faction,
they had even reconciled the public voice to German mercenaries.
The imprudence of their superiors, up to their very chief, had like
to have widened the breach for ever. A Hanoverian soldier buying
four handkerchiefs at Maidstone, took by mistake the whole piece,
which contained six. All parties have allowed that the fellow did
it in ignorance; yet a robbery was sworn against him, and he was
committed to jail. Count Kilmansegge, the commanding officer,
demanded him, with threats of violence; but the Mayor, no whit
intimidated out of his duty, refused to deliver him. Kilmansegge
dispatched an express to Kensington. The Chancellor, Newcastle, and
Fox were all out of the way; Murray, the Attorney-General, was so
rashly complaisant as to draw a warrant, which Lord Holderness was
ordered to copy, for the release of the man. This in a few days
occasioned such a flame, being mixed, as might have been expected,
even in the tumultuous addresses of the time, that it was thought
proper to transfer the crime, according to the politics of the
year, to the subordinate agents. Kilmansegge was ordered to retire
without taking leave; and the poor soldier (as a warning to Mr.
Byng) received three hundred lashes. The ignorant Secretary of
State was menaced by the Opposition; the real criminal, Murray,
with no ignorance to plead, found such an outrageous violation of
law no impediment to his succeeding as Chief Justice.
The disturbances flowing from these blunders, neglects, and
illegalities, alarmed Newcastle. He found it was no longer a season
for wantoning with the resentment of the successor and his mother:
he determined to gratify them. The Chancellor, who was with great
difficulty drawn to make a sacrifice of his revenge, was sent to
the King, to prevail on him to yield that Lord Bute might be at
the head of the Prince’s family. The old man could not but observe
to the Chancellor how contradictory this advice was to the refusal
himself had suggested, pressed. “Sir,” replied the Judge, with
sanctimonious chicane, “your Majesty has said, that you would not
make the Earl of Bute Groom of the Stole, and undoubtedly your
Majesty cannot make the Earl of Bute Groom of the Stole; but your
Majesty has never said that you would not make the Earl of Bute
Treasurer, or place him in some other great post.” However, this
sophistry was too gross; and the King thought it less dishonourable
flatly to break his declared resolution, than palliate it to
himself by so mean an evasion.
Newcastle, not to lag behind in the race of untruths, told Fox
that nothing more would be said in Council of the Prince’s family;
he believed nothing more would be done in it. In the meantime,
he regulated the whole establishment, though it hung awhile in
suspense, as they wished to extract from the Princess a promise of
giving no further trouble.
Fox now found it was time to consult his own security. He saw
Newcastle flinging up works all round himself; and suspected that
Pitt would be invited to defend them. He saw how little power he
had obtained by his last treaty with the Duke. He saw himself
involved in the bad success of measures on which he had not been
consulted, scarce suffered to give an opinion; and he knew that if
Newcastle and Pitt united, he must be sacrificed as the cement of
their union. Indeed, his Grace, so far from keeping terms, had
not observed common decency with him: a few instances, which Fox
selected to justify to the King the step he was reduced to take,
shall suffice. Early in the summer, Newcastle complaining of want
of support, Fox told him, that if it would facilitate his Grace’s
measures, he would resign Secretary of State to Mr. Pitt, and take
an inferior place. This, at the beginning of October, the Duke
recollected, and told Lord Barrington, that if Fox would not take
it ill, he would offer his place to Pitt the next day. So far from
_not_ taking it ill, Fox made it matter of complaint that his Grace
had dared to think he was sincere in the offer.
In the list for the Prince’s family, Fox saw the names of eight or
ten members of Parliament, of whom he had not heard a word, till
the Duke of Newcastle told him all was settled with the King; and,
which though meant to soften, was an aggravation by the manner,
at the same time acquainted him that the King would let Lord
Digby (Fox’s nephew) be a Lord of the Bedchamber to the Prince,
preferably to the other competitors: “But it was at my desire,”
said the Duke; “for his Majesty was very averse to do anything
for you.”--Fox replied, coldly, “Lord Digby is not likely to
live.”--“Oh!” said Newcastle, with a brutality which the hurry of
folly could not excuse, “then _that_ will settle it.” Fox made no
reply; but the next day wrote him a letter to notify that he would
go on no longer. Newcastle, thunderstruck with having accomplished
what he had projected, reached the letter (he received it at the
Board of Treasury,) to Nugent, and cried, “What shall I do?”--and
then hurried to Lord Granville, and told him he would resign his
place to him. “I thought,” said Granville, “I had cured you of
such offers last year: I will be hanged a little before I take
your place, rather than a little after.” Fox, too, went to vent
his woes on Lord Granville, and prefacing them with a declaration
of his unambitious temper, that shrewd jolly man interrupted him,
and said, “Fox, I don’t love to have you say things that will not
be believed--if you was of my age, very well; I have put on my
night-cap; there is no more daylight for me--but you _should_ be
ambitious: I want to instil a nobler ambition into you; to make
you knock the heads of the Kings of Europe together, and jumble
something out of it that may be of service to this country.”
However, he had too much experience of Newcastle to think it
possible for Fox to go on with him, or to expect that Newcastle
would let him. In my own opinion, Fox hoped to terrify, and to
obtain an increase of sway. He went to Lady Yarmouth, and uttered
his grievances, and appealed to her whether he had not formerly
told her, that, if on the death of Mr. Pelham the Duke of Newcastle
had taken him sincerely, he would have acted as faithfully under
him as he had under Sir Robert Walpole:--“_Ah! Monsieur Fox_,”
cried Lady Yarmouth, “_il y avoit bien de la difference entre ces
deux hommes là!_” She entreated him, for the sake of the King,
for the sake of the country, not to quit. Not prevailing, she
begged that Lord Granville might carry the message instead of her.
After recapitulating his subjects of complaint, the substance of
the message was, that concluding Mr. Pitt was to come into the
King’s service, and finding his own credit decrease daily, and
how impossible it was for him to act any longer with the Duke of
Newcastle, he was willing to serve his Majesty to the best of his
abilities in any post, not of the Cabinet.
When Granville arrived with this letter at Kensington, he said,
“I suppose your Majesty knows what I am bringing?” “Yes,” replied
the King; “and I dare say you disapproved and dissuaded it.” “Yes,
indeed, Sir,” said he, (as he repeated the dialogue himself to
Fox: “And why did you say so?” asked Fox. “Oh!” said he, shuffling
it off with a laugh, “you know one must--one must.”) The King,
whom Newcastle had just left, seemed much irritated against Fox,
talked of his ingratitude and ambition, quoted the friends of Fox
that he had preferred, and particularly of his having raised so
young a Peer as Lord Ilchester above so many ancient Barons; and
when he had vented his anger against Fox, he abruptly asked Lord
Granville, “Would you advise me to take Pitt?” “Sir,” said he,
“you must take somebody.” “What!” cried the King, “would you bear
Pitt over you?” “While I am your Majesty’s President,” replied
the Earl, “nobody will be over me.” The King then abused Lord
Temple much; and at last broke forth the secret of his heart--“I
am sure,” said he, “_Pitt will not do my business_.” “You know,”
said Lord Granville to Fox, “what _my business_ meant;--Hanover.”
The supposition did honour to Pitt; but, it seems, the King did not
know him. The conversation ended with the King’s saying, he would
leave it to Fox’s honour whether he would desert him now.
Fox was by no means hard-hearted on this occasion. He began to say,
that he would serve for the next session, but would positively
resign in the spring. In the meantime, he was casting about for
means of union with Pitt. His resentment to Newcastle prescribed
this; and his friend, the Duke of Bedford, who, from the moment he
had lost his Turnpike Bill, saw that this country would be ruined
by the Duke of Newcastle and the Chancellor, loudly dictated it.
Fox applied to Horace Walpole, and told him, that as soon as he
should be _ready_ to break with Newcastle, he would desire him to
acquaint Mr. Pitt that he should be willing to unite with him.
Walpole, who by no means approved the adoption of such Pelham
politics, as acting with a man only till an opportunity offered of
undermining him; and who had for some time withdrawn himself from
all participation of measures which he thought neither fair nor
wise, replied, “That it was true, he admired Mr. Pitt, though he
had not the honour of his friendship; that he earnestly wished to
see them united; but before he carried any such message, he must be
convinced it was for Mr. Fox’s honour and service.”
Walpole had uniformly persisted in detaching himself from Fox, from
the moment the latter had entered into engagements with Newcastle,
with whom the other had determined never to have the most minute
connexion. Yet, I fear, passions of more mortal complexion had
co-operated a little to his disunion (I cannot call it breach,
as he never had the least quarrel) with Fox. Rigby, who had
vast obligations to him, was, however, grown weary of Walpole’s
ardour for factious intrigues, and wished a little to realize his
politics. He had not only abandoned his friend for the Duke of
Bedford, but thought it time to turn his new friendship to account;
and had drawn the Duke out of that opposition to the Court, in
which, by Walpole’s arts, as has been shown, he had involved him.
In short, Rigby, by no means in affluence, and with too much
common sense to amuse himself any longer with politics that had no
solid views, sacrificed the Duke of Bedford to Fox and fortune,
when Walpole wished to have him sacrificed to his humour. This
had made a breach between them; and Walpole, whose resentments
were impetuous, and by no means of an accommodating mould, was
little desirous of serving that league, and of breaking Fox’s
fall, especially by dishonourable means. It was enough to do wrong
to gratify his own passions--he was not at all disposed to err,
only in contradiction to them. This detail would be impertinent,
if a crisis, which Fox reckoned decisive, had not turned (as
will be seen) on these secret springs; and if the author did not
think it his duty to avow his own failings and blemishes with the
same frankness which he has used on other characters. The only
difference is, that in others he would probably have treated the
same faults with greater asperity, which the justice of the reader
will supply.
Lady Yarmouth entreated Fox to see the King as soon as possible:
she wished to prevent the rupture; for all the Hanoverians had
contracted strange notions of the truculence of Pitt’s virtue.
October 18th, Fox had an audience. The Monarch was sour; but
endeavoured to keep his temper: yet made no concessions, no
request to the _retiring_ Minister to stay. At last he let slip
the true cause of his indignation: “_You_” said he, “have made me
make that puppy Bute Groom of the Stole;” for so the junto had
persuaded him, when they were reduced to bend to Bute themselves.
Fox protested that he had never named it in Council; he had only
suggested it as a prudent measure to Newcastle. Still the King
dropped suspicions of his having connexions with the Princess.
“Sir,” replied Fox, “what I am so happy in, my attachment to your
son,[68] might have assured you against that.” On his side, the
Monarch disavowed having made any offers to Pitt. Yet so little
condescension appeared, that Fox determined to quit directly; and
took his leave with saying, that his intention was so much known,
that now he could not avoid resigning. The King, during the whole
conversation, seemed to leave open his dominion of saying, or
unsaying, hereafter, as the negotiations on the anvil should have
a prosperous or unfortunate issue. The Chancellor was treating
with Pitt; that is, had sent to desire to see him, and plied him
on the 19th and 20th with large offers. Pitt refused all in direct
terms, alleging, that the Duke of Newcastle had engrossed the
King’s whole confidence--and it was understood, that he meaned to
put an exclusive negative on that Duke. Yet he deigned to name the
price at which that diamond, his virtue, might be purchased for
the Crown. Ireland he demanded for Lord Temple; for Legge, the
Chancellorship of the Exchequer; for George Grenville, Paymaster;
for James Grenville, Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant; for
Charles Townshend, Treasurer of the Chambers, or some such thing;
for himself, Secretary of State;--for his country, the Militia,
and some other rattles. He named the Duke of Devonshire to the
Treasury, and without consulting, answered for him.
In the meantime the Prince’s new family kissed hands. Lord Bute,
as Groom of the Stole; Lord Huntingdon, Master of the Horse;
Lord Euston, Lord Pembroke, Lord Digby, Lords of the Bedchamber;
Mr. Monson and Mr. Ingram, Grooms; Mr. Stone, Secretary; Lord
Bathurst, Treasurer; Mr. Masham, Auditor; Mr. Brudenel, Master of
the Robes; besides Equerries and Clerks of the Green-cloth. Mr.
Cadogan was appointed Privy-Purse to Prince Edward, who had also
Grooms and Equerries. The late Governor, Lord Waldegrave, was
offered a pension on Ireland, and refused it: they then gave him
the reversion of a Teller’s place; and one cannot tell which was
most rejoiced at the separation, he or the Princess, who had been
suspicious enough to take for a spy, a man, who would even have
scorned to employ one. The fate of one man was singular: the Prince
of Wales himself condescended to desire Mr. Stone to prevent Scott,
his Sub-Preceptor, from being continued in any employment about
him--and it was granted. Scott has been mentioned in the civil wars
of the tutorhood as attached to Stone: the reason given for his
exclusion was, his having talked with contempt of the Prince’s
understanding,[69] and with freedom of the Princess’s conduct. The
truth was, Scott was a frank man, of no courtly depth, and had
indiscreetly disputed with Lord Bute, who affected a character of
learning. The King, who loved to mark his empire in the loss of it,
refused to give the Golden Key himself to Lord Bute, as was usual,
but sent it by the Duke of Grafton, who slipped it into his pocket,
and advised him to take no notice of the manner. The Earl, on being
wished joy, was said to reply, he felt none, while the Duke of
Newcastle was Minister.
On the 21st, in the morning, the palace--not at all the scene of
action, had its solitude alarmed. The Pages of the Back-stairs were
seen hurrying about, and crying, “Mr. Pitt wants my Lady Yarmouth.”
That great stranger made her an abrupt visit--said he was come
to explain himself, lest it should be thought he had not been
sufficiently explicit. He repeated his exclusion of Newcastle--and
gave some civil, though obscure hints, as if, in losing his grace,
Hanover might not lose _all_ its friends. The visit itself seemed
to indicate that. The mistress of the King and the friend of
the Minister was not the first person to whom one should have
expected a patriot would have addressed himself, who proscribed the
Minister, as he had long attacked the Electorate. And, indeed, it
looked as if Mr. Pitt was afraid of having been too explicit, not
too little so.
However, the difficulty was increased. The question seemed at first
to be, whether Cæsar or Pompey should have the honour of supporting
Crassus--when neither would, Crassus made a show of venturing to
stand alone: and it seemed almost as easy for him, as for either
of the others. For Fox could neither trust to a Parliament devoted
to Newcastle; nor dared, in his own unpopular situation, to call
a new one. Pitt had no party at all: a new Parliament would have
suited him best, for he could not have fewer adherents than in
the old one; and, considering the temper of the nation on the
late miscarriages, in which he had no hand, might acquire some
clamorous voices; but that very dissatisfaction made the expedient
too dangerous. How each was counselled by his friends may be seen
in a moment. Stone, cold and never sanguine, advised Newcastle to
give up a desperate game: Murray threw in censures on his conduct
to Fox: the Duke of Grafton, though hating Fox, wisely suggested
a reconciliation with him: the Chancellor, sullen and mortified,
protested he would follow his Grace, but endeavoured to encourage
him to stand alone, affirming they could carry everything by their
numbers; and having ever been ready to torture the law to annoy
his enemies, he could not help expecting to find the same support
from it for himself and his friends. Sir George Lyttelton concurred
with him--and if that was encouragement, offered to accept any
employment. Nugent and Lord Duplin, on the contrary, dissuaded such
rash measures; the latter said, sensibly, “Fox and Pitt shall not
need but sit still and laugh, and we must walk out of the House.”
Fox’s court (except Doddington, who was too shrewd not to think ill
of their cause, and who accordingly acted disgust on not having
been more consulted) talked as if triumphant, the moment they heard
the reconciliation of Newcastle and Pitt was desperate. The Duke of
Marlborough said, Newcastle must be sent to Sussex; Claremont was
too near. The Duke of Bedford would have permitted him to retire
thither with a pension, and eagerly drove Fox to unite with Pitt.
The party of the latter, that is, Lord Temple, was indecently
forward to come into place, and having always hated by the scale of
his ambition, he had only passions to sacrifice, not principles,
when the terms of his advancement were to be adjusted.
Newcastle sinking, catched at feathers: his Grace proposed to
Lord Egmont to be Secretary of State; but he demanded an English
Peerage for his son, as the price of his own acceptance of one of
the first posts in England. Ministers were become such precarious
tenures, that scarce any man would list in them under places for
life. The foreign Ministers, a nation not apt to joke, complained
bitterly of our frequent revolutions; and D’Abreu, the Spanish
Resident, said, before they ventured to negotiate, they were
obliged to ask who would be Minister next Session?
At last the important point was decided, and Perfidy, after thirty
years, _had_ an intermission. The Duke of Newcastle (with all the
satisfaction which must have attended the discovery that not one
man of sense would trust him any longer) declared his resolution of
resigning.
Oct. 27th.--The King sent for Fox, acquainted him that Newcastle
would retire, and asked him if Pitt would join with him; bad him
try. Fox the next day went to the Prince’s Levée, and taking Pitt
apart at the head of the stairs, said to him, “Are you going
to Stowe? I ask, because I believe you will have a message of
consequence by persons of consequence.” “You surprise me,” said
Pitt; “are you to be of the number?” Fox: “I don’t know.” Pitt:
“One likes to say things to men of sense, and of your great sense,
rather than to others; and yet it is difficult even to you.” Fox:
“What! you mean you will not act with me as a Minister?” Pitt: “I
do.” And then, to soften the abruptness of the declaration, left
Fox with saying, he hoped Fox would take an active part, which his
health would not permit him to do.
The next day the Duke of Devonshire was ordered by the King to
try to compose some Ministry; and by the same authority sent for
Mr. Pitt; at the same time endeavouring to make him accommodate
with Fox. But they had given too much weight to Pitt by these
submissions, for such a negotiator to be able to recover the
balance. Pitt, knowing both his own strength and the weakness
of the mediator, behaved with haughty warmth; complained of the
indignity offered to him by sending Fox, whom he proscribed from
the Cabinet; softened a little in general, yet said, he must
promote the inquiries; excused himself for having named his Grace
to the Treasury, but as it was necessary to place some great Lord
there to whom the Whigs would look up, his partiality had made him
presume to propose his Grace: professed not only duty to the King,
but obligation for the person now commissioned to treat with him.
The Duke took up spirit, and told him, if he refused, the King
would be supported without him--Pitt did not mean to drive them to
that extremity. The negotiations took up many days, all parties
raising difficulties, none bringing facilities. Pitt, who wanted
friends for places, more than places for his friends, seemed to
think that he must figure by the greatness, since he could not by
the number of his demands. Yet of his small squadron, he seemed
solicitous to provide only for his allies the Granvilles, as if
what filled his own little administration would suffice for the
nation’s. He even affected to have forgot Charles Townshend, and,
as if recollecting himself, cried, “Oh! there is one that will not
like to be at the bottom of the list.” The mediator-Duke took care
this neglect should not be a secret. On one point Pitt affected
decency: being asked whom he wished to have Secretary at War, he
replied, he did not pretend to meddle there. He relaxed on the
article of sending away the Hanoverians; softened towards a war on
the continent; owned the King of Prussia was a great object, but
would not determine on foreign affairs till he had received more
lights from the King’s servants. With regard to the inquiries, he
said at last, he would neither hinder nor move them; he was not
vindictive. Addresses all the while were repeated with violence.
The city of London, always governed by the absurdest heads in it,
demanded to have the supplies stopped, till grievances should be
redressed. Indeed it was much easier to delay than to raise them:
and yet nothing but the wickedness of the intention could justify
the folly of the injunction.
If Mr. Pitt had no occasion to dismiss many, Newcastle and Fox
were not careless of saving all they could; in which they found
great facility, as Mr. Pitt had not cousins enough to fill the
whole Administration. Neither of the former gave up their views on
the power they quitted. Fox particularly laboured to throw every
difficulty in Pitt’s way; and with some cause: at once excluded
from Government, and menaced with a censure, it behoved him not
to make over too much strength to his antagonist: and if he did
not succeed in recovering his own fall, at least he left so narrow
a seat to Mr. Pitt, that it required another convulsion, before
the latter could fix himself with any firmness. Fox hoped first
to divide Pitt and Legge: the Duke of Devonshire, who thought he
had influence on the latter, tried it, but in vain. Fox too had
fruitlessly endeavoured to gain Legge; and on his first thought of
breaking with Newcastle, had writ a confidential letter to Legge,
begging him to come to town, and concert measures with him on the
deplorable situation of affairs. Legge made no answer. Fox in wrath
sent for his letter back: Legge returned it at once without a word;
and depending on his favour with Lord Bute, now thought himself so
considerable a part of the new accession, that he hoped to engross
the Treasury himself; and actually proposed Lord Hertford for First
Lord. Fox laboured to engage the Duke of Devonshire to accept
the Treasury, and the Duke of Bedford to go to Ireland, at once
to fix another ally in the Cabinet, and to disappoint both Legge
and Temple. Bedford was refractory; but luckily the Throne of
Ireland was heaven itself in the eyes of the Duchess: and the vast
emoluments of Secretary were full as vehement temptations to their
secretary Mr. Rigby.
Fox in the mean time endeavoured to buoy up the spirits of the
King, telling him he neither wanted expedients nor courage;
intreated him to have patience; that Pitt would rise in his
demands; that at last and at worst he would take the Treasury
himself and go to the Tower, rather than they should shave his
Majesty’s head--“Ah!” cried the King, sensibly, “if you go to the
Tower I shall not be long behind you!” The Duke of Bedford was as
courageous as Fox, and proposed warm opposition, or to support Fox
in the Administration. And thus far Fox had judged right; Pitt’s
demands no longer abated. He required the dismission of Lord
Holderness on the affair of the Hanoverian soldier; and proposed to
take Sir Thomas Robinson for coadjutor, only exchanging provinces;
himself would take the northern; that was, the Hanoverian; and it
is worthy remark, that formerly in a dialogue with Fox, when the
Duke of Newcastle had pretended to govern the House of Commons by
Sir Thomas Robinson, Pitt, with utter contempt, had said, “He may
as well send his jack-boot to govern us.”
Lord Holderness wrote to Mr. Pitt, that he was willing to resign as
the other great persons were to do; but if it was to be inflicted
as a punishment, he would insist on having his crime proved, nor
till then _would_ resign. This comforted the King; he abhorred the
thought of seeing Pitt, and complained of the hardship of being
forced to tell the only secrets he had to a man whom he never
would let into his closet. His expostulations on these occasions
were always pathetic and sensible: “What a strange country,” said
he to Fox, “is this! I have never known but two or three men in
it who understood foreign affairs: you do not study them--and
yet here comes one man (Pitt), and says he has not so much as
read Wicquefort, has all to learn, and demands to be Secretary of
State! Indeed, he has proposed Sir Thomas Robinson too, who does
understand foreign affairs, but then Mr. Pitt insists on taking the
province which Sir Thomas understands.” In the same conversation
the King said, “The Duke of Newcastle is an honest man and loves
the Duke of Devonshire, but he will be jealous of him to-morrow, if
the latter takes the Treasury.”
In this situation, with no Ministry, no plan for supplies, no
communication for the foreign Ministers, all Government at a stand,
it was necessary to defer the meeting of the Parliament. Pitt at
last condescended to acquaint the Duke of Devonshire that Lord
Temple would be content to take the business of the Navy on him.
Yet the more they acquiesced the more Fox laboured to defeat all
accommodation by which he was to be excluded. His last effort, and
a rash one it was, concluded to have the great Lords and Commoners
summoned to a meeting at Lord Granville’s, where the indignities
offered to the King, and the exorbitances of Mr. Pitt’s demands,
were to be laid before them. They were to be entreated to stand by
the King in lopping Mr. Pitt’s list; and, with their approbation,
a message was to be sent to him in the name of the Council, that
his Majesty would not endure the readmission of Mr. Legge; that
Mr. Pitt should in other things be contented, except that Mr.
Fox must be Chancellor of the Exchequer. On this foot, and on no
other, the Duke of Devonshire consented to take the Treasury. Fox
wished him to retain Ireland, that so, if they could weather the
approaching session, the Duke might be ready to resign the Treasury
into his hands, which seemed to be the drift of his intrigues:--if
Devonshire could not keep Ireland, then Bedford was designed to
it. The secret was kept till the very day it was to be disclosed;
when the Duke of Grafton, having learnt it either from the King or
Devonshire, was amazed at the wildness of mischief with which it
was big, and went to lament with his son-in-law, Lord Hertford.
It happened that Mr. Conway and Horace Walpole were at dinner
with the Earl, and to them, as soon as the Duke was gone, he
communicated what he had heard. They were no less astonished than
the others had been, and saw plainly that Fox was precipitating the
King and the chief persons in England upon a measure, from which it
would be impossible for them to recede, to which it was impossible
Pitt should submit, and that in consequence of such a rupture at
such a crisis, heated as the passions of men were, even a Civil War
might ensue. To crush such a plan in its embryo was, in reality,
serving Fox, and certainly the nation:--these were sufficient
inducements; and yet, as I have said, Walpole had the additional
satisfaction of disappointing the views of that cabal, when he
persuaded Mr. Conway to go directly to the Duke of Devonshire, and
alarm him with the true picture of the measure in which he had
been drawn to concur. His timid nature easily caught the panic: he
made the intended meeting be laid aside, the message put off; and
the next day, without acquainting Fox with his determination of
accepting without conditions, went to Kensington, and consented to
take the Treasury. Fox and the Duke of Bedford, who were waiting
in the outward room, were thunder-struck--the latter expostulated
warmly with Devonshire--the other, who had found Mr. Conway at
Devonshire-house the night before, did not want to be told who
shot the arrow; still less, when Devonshire officiously assured
him it was not Mr. Conway. Fox has said to the real author of
his miscarriage, that from that hour he dated all the events in
the subsequent revolutions. This happened on the 2nd and 3rd of
November.
The Duke of Devonshire having yielded, the new system began to
range itself. Legge professed acquiescence--artfully; if Pitt
acceded, he must of course: if Pitt did not, Legge would have all
the merit of his own moderation. But that conqueror grew still
more tractable: he first yielded to take the southern province;
next, even to bear with Lord Holderness, if his Majesty insisted
on it; yet hoped it would be waved, as he [otherwise] might set
out with doing something disagreeable to his Majesty, [he] having
engaged his honour, if a question should be moved on that Lord,
not to oppose it. Some parting rays of popular virtue were still
made to glimmer: the party even ordered one Evans, a lawyer, to
draw up articles of impeachment against Lord Anson; and transports
were ordered for the Hanoverians, as the country magistrates urged
that they were not obliged by law to billet them. The nation all
the while expected great services from Pitt--but even the Duke
of Newcastle had talked reformation, and once had gone so far as
to cashier the pensions of three old widows. Pitt’s was a nobler
style; and, as Addison said of Virgil, if he did contaminate
himself, _he at least tossed about his dirt with an air of
majesty_.
[Illustration: DUKE OF BEDFORD.
London, Henry Colburn, 1846.]
With more sincerity the little band of patriots disposed themselves
to fill the conquered provinces: yet so few of them were in
Parliament, and so many had difficulties of being re-chosen, that
it almost promised to be an Administration out of Parliament. Fox
even skirmished his borough from Dr. Hay, one of the new Admiralty;
and had others been as desperate, would have opposed most of them
on their re-elections. Pitt himself was distressed; and he, who
had lately so warmly attacked the Duke of Newcastle from the seat
which he held by one of that Duke’s boroughs, could not propose to
his Grace to re-elect him, when rising on his ruins. But a little
parliamentary craft of shifting boroughs, adjusted this: though
Newcastle vaunted that he would show both Pitt and Fox that the
Parliament was his.
The Duke of Bedford for some time impeded the entire arrangement,
by warmly refusing to take Ireland. Yet he too at last was
mollified, after having, as was his way, declared himself with
violence enough to show, that if he changed afterwards, it was
by the influence of others. Fox had gone to Woburn to persuade
him;--in vain: yet, returning, and indeed, knowing what advocates
he left behind, ventured (lest that kingdom should be given up
before Bedford was brought to a proper temper) to assure the Duke
of Devonshire that Bedford would accept the Lord-Lieutenancy.
When all was adjusted, the Duke of Newcastle resigned, Nov. 11th.
As he retired _without terrors_ and _with parade_, it was easy
to penetrate his hopes of returning to Court. It was assiduously
propagated in all the public papers, that he departed without place
or pension; and his enormous estate, which he had sunk from thirty
to thirteen thousand pounds a year, by every ostentatious vanity,
and on every womanish panic, between cooks, mobs, and apothecaries,
was now represented by his tools as wasted in the cause of the
Government. To show how _unrewarded_ he chose to relinquish the
Administration, this was the catalogue of his disinterestedness.
His Dukedom was entailed on his nephew, Lord Lincoln; the only
one[70] conferred by George the Second. Another nephew, Mr.
Shelley, had the reversion of the Pipe Office. His cousin, young T.
Pelham, already of the Board of Trade, got another reversion in the
Custom House. His creature, Sir George Lyttelton, was indemnified
with a Peerage. His secretary, Mr. West, was rewarded with a
reversion for himself and son. Jones, a favourite clerk, and nephew
of the Chancellor, had another reversion. An Irish Earldom was
given to Mr. O’Brien.
All this being granted, his Grace retired to Claremont, where,
for about a fortnight, he played at being a country gentleman.
Guns and green frocks were bought, and at past sixty, he affected
to turn sportsman; but getting wet in his feet, he hurried back to
London in a fright, and his country was once more blessed with his
assistance.
Newcastle’s resignation was on the 19th followed by that of the
Chancellor. Great endeavours had been used to retain him, or to
engage Murray to succeed him; but what terrified or disgusted the
former could have no temptation to the latter, who was equally a
friend to Newcastle, was by no means equally ambitious, was more
timorous, and still less disposed to serve with Pitt alone. Fatigue
determined the scale with Lord Hardwicke, which power and profit
would have kept suspended. The Great Seal was given in Commission
to Lord Chief Justice Willes, Judge Wilmot, and Baron Smyth. Wilmot
was much attached to Legge, and a man of great vivacity of parts.
He loved hunting and wine, and not his profession. He had been an
admired Pleader, before the House of Commons, but being reprimanded
on the contested election for Wareham with great haughtiness by
Pitt, who told him he had brought thither the pertness of his
profession, and being prohibited by the Speaker from making a
reply, he flung down his brief in a passion, and never would return
to plead there any more. Fox procured the place of Attorney-General
for Henley; the Comptroller’s staff for Mr. Edgecombe; the band of
Pensioners and Treasurership of the Household for Lord Berkeley of
Stratton, and Lord Bateman; an English Barony for Lord Hilsborough;
and asked another for his own wife and son--too ambitious a
declaration of the figure he still intended to make in the House of
Commons. But this was with great indignation refused; and the King,
who knew how little he should displease by it, abused him in very
undignified terms to the Duke of Grafton, saying, “He now wants to
set his dirty shoe on my neck.”
Lord Sandys was again shuffled to the top of the wheel, as
Doddington was again to the bottom; the former being raised to
Speaker of the House of Lords, the latter dismissed, with Lord
Darlington, and a few others. Pitt’s list was confined to this
small number: himself, Legge, and Lord Temple have been mentioned.
George Grenville succeeded Doddington as Treasurer of the Navy;
James Grenville, a Lord of the Treasury; Potter, a joint Paymaster
of Ireland; Sir Richard Lyttelton had the Jewel-office; Martin,
Secretary of the Treasury; the Admirals West and Forbes, with Dr.
Hay, Elliot, and Hunter, were put into the Admiralty; John Pitt
was made Surveyor of the Roads, and Charles Townshend, Treasurer
of the Chambers. At the same time, Garters were given to the Duke
of Devonshire, Lord Carlisle, Lord Northumberland, and Lord
Hertford. A Red-Riband and an Irish Peerage to old Blakeney, who
went to Kensington in a hackney-coach, with a foot soldier behind
it. As Blakeney had not only lost his government, but was bed-rid
while it was losing, these honours were a little ridiculed; but
the new Ministers and Admiralty inclining to treat Mr. Byng with
less rigour, this step was taken by the old Court to refresh the
resentment of the populace. Excepting Lord Temple and Pitt himself,
the Cabinet was still engrossed by the adherents of Newcastle and
Fox; and little harmony was to be expected, or was designed, from
a jumble of three such discordant interests. The invention was
Fox’s, who, first of all men, projected to leave his friends in
place, to distress his hostile successors. Formerly the dependents
of a Minister resigned with affected dignity, or were abruptly
dismissed,--pensions and reversions now broke the fall of the few
who were disgraced.
Pitt now appeared as First Minister; yet between his haughtiness on
the one hand, and the little share he assumed, except in foreign
affairs, on the other; with the affected court paid by Fox’s
party to the Duke of Devonshire, and with the King’s disposition
to communicate himself only to his old servants, all application
was made to that Duke, whom the roses of power soon charmed to a
forgetfulness of the thorns. Yet the irresolution of his temper,
and desire of preventing farther dissensions, made him yield so
much to Pitt, that Fox, finding himself no more Minister by his
proxy than he was in person, left the town in discontent; but was
soon recalled by his friends, who assured him that Pitt could not
long maintain his post, both from his ill health and the weakness
of his party. From the first hour of his power he was confined with
the gout, and remained so during greatest part of the winter; and
for accession of strength he had nothing but the partiality[71]
of the Tories, who, taking all opportunities of declaring for
him, gave great offence; and both his gout and his new friends
were topics of unlimited abuse, which was poured on him by Fox’s
direction and dependents. A paper war of the most inveterate kind
was opened. Two weekly papers, called _The Test_ and _Contest_,
besides occasional pamphlets, were the vehicles of satire. Murphy,
a player, wrote the former on behalf of Fox; and Francis, a poetic
clergyman, signalized himself on the same side.
The Parliament met Dec. 2nd. Pitt had prepared a long speech, which
the King would not read, but sent to him to shorten it. The House
of Commons soon adjourned for the re-elections; and during the few
days it sat, harmony so far took place, that there was no division,
scarce a debate;[72] but the seed sown in the preceding occurrences
soon developed themselves in the ensuing year.
FOOTNOTES:
[68] Duke of Cumberland.
[69] He once, before Lord Waldegrave, said to the Prince, who
excused his own inapplication on the foot of idleness, “Sir,
_yours_ is not idleness; your brother Edward _is_ idle, but you
must not call being asleep all day being idle.”
[70] On the removal of Sir Robert Walpole, the King had consented
to make the Earls of Northampton and Ailesbury Dukes, but neither
having a son, they declined that honour.
[71] That partiality was not cordial, but founded on their hatred
to Fox, and probably from secret intimations that the Princess, who
meant to adopt them, was inclined to Pitt, and abhorred Fox for his
connexion with the Duke of Cumberland.
[72] A spurious speech having been vended for the King’s, it was
complained of, I think by Lord Sandwich, in the House of Lords, and
the authors punished; Lord Hardwicke still taking the lead very
dictatorially, but occasionally flattering Pitt on the composition
of the true one.
1757.
Sine cæde et sanguine Pauci.--_Juv._