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 nRADDUBV AND EVANS, miNTEKS, WIIlTErEIABS,
 
 MEMOIRS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHAM 
 
 AND 
 
 HIS CONTEMPOllARIES.
 
 (DMAE.3LIES WATTSOM WlHTrWOMSTM, 
 
 iiE(C(Q)WB MArnQUH^ @w m,OGW.m(^MAm.m a 
 
 TWICE PRIME MINISTER OY ENGLAND.
 
 MEMOIRS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE MARQUIS OP ROCKINGHAM 
 
 AND 
 
 HIS CONTEMPORARIES. 
 
 WITH ORIGINAL LETTERS AND DOCUMENTS 
 NOW FIRST PUBLISHED. 
 
 BY 
 GEORGE THOMAS, EARL OF ALBEMARLE. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 VOL. L 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET, 
 
 ^Uufilisijer in ©rtinarp to ^}n iHajfStfi. 
 
 M.DCCC.LII.
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PrintetJ by Samuel Bentley and Co. 
 
 Bangor Houac, Shoe Lane.
 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVEUSn 1 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 SANTA BARBARA 
 
 TO 
 
 CHARLES WILLIAM, EARL FITZAVILLIAM, K.G, 
 
 HEIR TO THE VIRTUES AND TALENTS 
 OF- HIS UNCLE 
 
 THE MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHAM, 
 
 THESE MEMOIRS ARE DEDICATED 
 
 WITH EVERY SENTIMENT OF AFFECTION AND RESPECT, 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Some years ago, while assisting my brother, Mr. 
 Thomas Keppel, in collecting materials for his " Life of 
 Viscount Keppel," I met with several of the letters 
 relating to Lord Rockingham's time, which I now send 
 forth to the world. It occurred to me that the publi- 
 cation of them would be a desirable contribution to 
 literature. The Bedford and Chatham Correspondence 
 have already displayed the opinions which guided two 
 sections of the Whig party : there remained a third, 
 which hitherto has had no exponent — that section, 
 namely, of which Lord Rockingham became, soon after 
 George the Third's accession, the acknowledged leader. 
 I have endeavoured to supply this defect in the present 
 Volumes. The Letters will speak for themselves. In 
 the Illustrations which connect them I have endea- 
 voured to restore a portion of their contemporary 
 interest. Whatever opinion may be formed of my 
 portion of the work; the value to the historian will 
 remain the same.
 
 Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 The staple of the work consists of the Papers of 
 Lord Rockingham himself, now in the possession of his 
 nephew and successor, the present Earl Fitzwilliam. 
 My own family collection furnished its quota ; and I 
 have been further assisted by the kindness of the 
 Duke of Richmond, the Earl of Hardwicke, and the 
 Rev. Charles Lee, great nephew of Lord Rockingham's 
 friend, Attorney-General Lee, who have granted me 
 free access to their respective family documents. 
 
 To my friend, Sir Denis Le Marchant, my best 
 acknowledgments are due, for a sketch of the character 
 of the Right Honourable Henry Seymour Conway, 
 accompanied by several interesting letters, written 
 during the early period of the Field Marshal's life. 
 
 I avail myself, likewise, of this opportunity to ex- 
 press my sincere thanks to the officers of the British 
 Museum, Sir Henry Ellis, Sir Frederick Madden, Messrs. 
 Panizzi, Holmes, Watts, and Von Bach, for the readi- 
 ness and courtesy with which they have on all occasions 
 assisted me in my researches. 
 
 11, Grosvenor Square, 
 January 19, 1852.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 OP 
 
 THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 George the Third's First Speech. — His Claim to the Character 
 of "Briton" considered — His Education. — The Leicester House 
 School of Politics. — The First Day of the King's Reign. — Cha- 
 racters of Newcastle, Chatham, Choiseul, and Hardwicke . 1 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 
 Menaced Invasion of 1759. — France sues for Peace. — Hans 
 Stanley. — Abbe de Bussy. — Duke of Newcastle to Lord Hard- 
 wicke. — Negociations for Peace. — Lord Hardwicke to Viscount 
 Royston. — Character of the Duke of Bedford. — Duke of New- 
 castle to Lord Hardwicke. — Lord Hardwicke to Lord Royston. 
 — The Pacific Professions of France considered.— Duke of New- 
 castle to Lord Hardwicke. — Mr. Pitt resigns the Seals. — Letters 
 from Dr. Birch and Soame Jenyns . . . .20 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 
 Earl of Egremont appointed Pitt's Successor. — Duke of New- 
 castle to Lord Hardwicke. — Threatened Rupture with Spain. — 
 Lord Royston to Mr. Yorke. — Want of Union at Court. — Sum-
 
 X CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 moiling a New Parliament. — Rival Lists. — Characters of Lord 
 Temple and George Grenville. — Choice of a Speaker. — The 
 King's Visit to the City. — Pitt's Conduct on that Occasion.— 
 Mr. Milbanke to Lord Rockingham. — Character of Barre. — Mr. 
 Milbanke to Lord Rockingham. — Effects of tlie Parliamentary 
 Debate . . . • - • .54 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 War with Spain declared. — Letter of Duke of Newcastle. — 
 Proposed Attack on the Havannah. — Earl of Albemarle. — Com- 
 modore Keppel. — Sir George Pocock. — Letter to Lord Albemarle. 
 — Character of Count de Viri. — Choiseul to Bailli de Solar. — 
 Letter to Lord Hardwicke. — Duke of Newcastle to Lord Hard- 
 wicke. — Lord Bute's secret Negociation with Vienna. — Letters 
 from the Duke of Newcastle to Lords Hardwicke and Rocking- 
 ham, on his Resignation of the Office of First Lord of the Trea- 
 sury, and to the Duke of Cumberland with his Answer , . 85 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Duke of Newcastle's Resignation. — Character of Sir Francis 
 Dash wood. — Negociations for Peace. — Character of Due de 
 Nivernais. — Capture of the Havannah. — Henry Fox. — Court 
 Persecution of the Whig Party. — Duke of Devonshire's Dis- 
 missal. — Character of Lord Rockingham. — Characters of Lords 
 Kinnoull, Lincoln, and Ashburnham, and Duke of Rutland. — 
 Proposed Alliance among the Whigs. — Dismissal of Whig Lord 
 Lieutenants and Custom-House Officers. — Lord Mansfield . 117 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 Resignation of Lord Bute. — Alleged Motives for it. — Grenville 
 Administration. — Imprisonment and Liberation of Wilkes. — 
 Leicester House Scheme. — Negociations between Lord Bute and 
 Mr. Pitt. — Mr. Pitt's Interviews with the King. — Bedford Ad-
 
 CONTENTS. XI 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ministration. — Death of Duke of Devonshire — Proposed New 
 Ministerial Arrangements. — Correspondence between Lord Hard- 
 wicke and his Brother . . . . .165 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Arbitrary Dismissal of General Conwa}-- and other Military 
 Officers. — Letters relating to the Regency Bill. — Duke of Cum- 
 berland's Statement of Negociation for Change of Ministers. — 
 Character of Lord Lyttelton Protectionist Riots. — Appoint- 
 ment of Commander of the Troops. — Correspondence with the 
 King and His Ministers on the Riots. — Prorogation of Parlia- 
 ment. — Ministerial Difficulties of the King. . . . 1 80 
 
 CHAPTER VIIL 
 
 Meeting of Whig Leaders. — Characters of the Duke of Graf- 
 ton, Gen. Conway, Dowdeswell, Lord John Cavendish, Thomas 
 Townshend, and Sir G. Savile. — Rockingham Administration. — 
 Character of, and Overtures to. Lord Shelburne. — Lord Dart- 
 mouth. — Lord Holland's Overtures. — Death of Duke of Cum- 
 berland. — The " General Warrant."— The King's Aversion to 
 the Rockingham Administration. — The Stamp Act. — Opening of 
 Parliament. — The King's Correspondence on Parliamentary De- 
 bates.— Proposed Change of Ministry. — Overtures to Pitt. — 
 Characters of Lords Talbot and Northington. — Right of Taxing 
 the Colonies. — Cabinet Resolutions on the Stamp Act. — Corre- 
 spondence and Debates on its Repeal.— Pamphlet on the Repeal. 
 — Character of Jeremiah Dyson. — Bill for Repeal passed. .218 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Hume and Rousseau. — The Militia Bill. — Character of Mr. 
 Trecothick. — Dinner in Celebration of the Stamp Act Repeal. — 
 Mistrust of England in Continental States. — Resolutions on
 
 Xll CONTENTS. 
 
 P^GB 
 
 General Warrants. — Resignation of Duke of Grafton. — Extracts 
 from Lord Hardwicke's " Memoriall." — Character of Duke of 
 Riclimond. — Characters of Lords North and Egmont. — Duke of 
 Richmond's Journal. — Inquiry into Lord Bute's suspected Inter- 
 ference in Public Affairs. — Pitt appointed Minister. — Dismissal 
 of the Rockingham Ministry . . , , .315 
 
 Field Marshal Heney Seymour Conway . . .371
 
 MEMOIRS 
 
 OP THE 
 
 MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHAM AND HIS 
 CONTEMPORARIES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 GEOKGE THE THIRD's FIRST SPEECH. HIS CLAIM TO THE CHARACTER 
 
 OF " BRITON " CONSIDERED. HIS EDUCATION. — THE LEICESTER 
 
 HOUSE SCHOOL OF POLITICS. THE FIRST DAY OF THE KINg's 
 
 REIGN. CHARACTEIIS OF NEWCASTLE CHATHAM — CHOISEUL AND 
 
 HARDWICKE. 
 
 " BoKN and educated in this country, I glory in the 
 name of Briton, and the peculiar happiness of my life will 
 ever consist in promoting the welfare of a people, whose 
 loyalty and warm affection I consider as the greatest 
 and most permanent security of my throne." 
 
 Such was one of the first sentences which George 
 the Third addressed to Parliament, on his assumption 
 of the kingly office. By the words of the paragraph 
 here cited, he evidently intended to imply some pre-emi- 
 nence on his own part over his two immediate pre- 
 decessors, who were "born and educated" in another 
 land. That the sovereign should have first drawn 
 
 VOL. I.- 13
 
 2 GEORGE THE THIRD. [17(50. 
 
 breath within his own sea-girt isle, that he should 
 speak its language, unalloyed by foreign accent or 
 idiom, were attractive novelties to Englishmen who, 
 for nearly half a century, had been governed by alien 
 princes. Equally new and pleasing was it to the people 
 to find in the new monarch, a youth of manly form, 
 of an open and ingenuous countenance, of affable and 
 prepossessing manners, and untainted with the usual 
 vices of his age and station. But, admitting these 
 moral and physical advantages, it may, I think, be 
 questioned whether he were really better qualified than 
 his royal progenitors to promote the welfare of the 
 people whose affection and loyalty he thus aspired to 
 possess. To any " education " befitting the consti- 
 tutional sov^eign of Great Britain he had little or 
 no claim. In tastes and habits he was an English- 
 man ; so much the mother country had done for him : 
 but his youth had been passed almost exclusively in 
 the society of his mother, the Princess Dowager of 
 Wales, and of his governor, John Stuart, Earl of 
 Bute. The former, a German Princess, derived her 
 notions of the rights and immunities of a sovereign 
 from the petty despotic court in which she had been 
 herself brought up. The latter, a Scotch nobleman, 
 arbitrary and inexperienced, mysterious and intriguing, 
 added to these disqualifications for a royal instructor, 
 that of having hitherto lived in such complete seclu- 
 sion, as to know as little as his youthful pupil him- 
 self of the character and feelings of the English 
 people. It had ever been the Princess's aim to instil
 
 1700. J LEICESTER HOUSE POLITICS. 3 
 
 into her son's mind her own political prejudices. From 
 his boyhood she had whispered into his ear, " George, 
 be King." Lord Bute had sedulously enforced this 
 maternal precept, and the joint tutelage of these two 
 instructors proved, during his protracted reign, that 
 the seed had fallen upon no ungenial ground. 
 
 Immediately on the accession of George the Third 
 to the throne, an artful system of party management 
 was organized so as to give eflfect to these precepts and 
 injunctions. 
 
 The system, indeed, was not altogether new. It 
 originated in the factious court of Frederick Prince 
 of Wales, George the Second's eldest son. From the 
 residence of the heir apparent, its centre and cradle, 
 it was denominated the Leicester House School of Poli- 
 tics. Its inventor was Bolingbroke, and its leading 
 features are shadowed forth in the " Craftsman " and 
 the " Idea of a Patriot King." In the preceding reign 
 a somewhat similar experiment had been made by 
 Pulteney, Wyndhani, and Carteret. But it was Lord 
 Bute, the favourite of the youthful sovereign, who 
 really rendered the machinery, for a time, effective. 
 
 The primary object of the Leicester House system 
 was to break up the powerful Whig confederacy which 
 had been, with little intermission, in power since the 
 Revolution, and without any interval since the acces- 
 sion of the House of Brunswick. Strong in family 
 connexion and popular sympathy, the Whigs had seated 
 and retained that dynasty on the throne, and their 
 motive in upholding a foreign rather than a native 
 
 B 2
 
 4 LEICESTER HOUSE POLITICS. [l7G0. 
 
 line of princes was, that they might the more effectually 
 protect the liberties of the people against the encroach- 
 ments of the crown. 
 
 But since the Whigs, collectively, were too power- 
 ful and too popular a body to be summarily dismissed, 
 the leading men were to be removed, one by one, from 
 the Cabinet and the Household. They would thus be 
 expelled from ofl&ce without the benefit of popular 
 feeling in their behalf, and Avould enter opposition as 
 a corps distrustful of one another, and disunited among 
 themselves. Had the designs of the Court been con- 
 fined to the adoption of a less liberal school of policy, 
 the new scheme would not have differed from an ordi- 
 nary intrigue for the removal of opponents and the 
 acquisition of office. But the royal junto had a deeper 
 and more unconstitutional purpose in view. They 
 wished virtually to supersede both the old Whig and 
 I Tory parties, and to create a third party, which might 
 form a permanent barrier against the attempt of any 
 future cabinet to act independently of the royal will. 
 The old method of ruling by favourites was to be 
 revived under a new form. In the place of an indivi- 
 dual minister, a Buckingham or a Strafford, whom 
 popular odium might easily displace, or an Abigail 
 Masham, whom a responsible minister might purchase or 
 disregard, a cabinet or household of favourites was to be 
 placed around the sovereign, in numbers sufficient to 
 divide and weaken popular hatred, and with influence 
 enough to command a certain measure of political sup- 
 port. A confederacy of renegades from every political
 
 1760.] LORD IIARDWICKE'S MEMORIALL. 5 
 
 section of the state was accordingly formed, which was 
 afterwards known by the appellation of "King's Friends." 
 The members of this new association abjured all party 
 distinction, and professed to regard the pleasure of the 
 sovereign as the sole source and condition of power. 
 Although holding many of the offices under the crown, 
 they acted irrespectively of the King's constitutional 
 advisers, and voted with or against ministers according 
 to the expressed or supposed predilections of their royal 
 master. 
 
 In a " Meraoriall of Family Occurrences," written by 
 the second Earl of Hardwicke,* in the year 1770, he 
 describes the treatment which the Whigs experienced at 
 the accession of George the Third. He refers, it is 
 
 * Philip Yorke succeeded to the earldom of Hardwicke, on the 
 death of his father, the celebrated Chancellor, in 1764. He sat for 
 several years in the House of Commons as member for Cambridge- 
 shire, under the title of Viscount Royston, and was a frequent and 
 effective speaker in Parliament. He became subsequently Lord-lieu- 
 tenant of the county, and High Steward for the University of Cam- 
 bridge. In 1766 he was admitted into Lord Rockingham's cabinet. 
 He was indeed a warm friend of that statesman, but, unable from the 
 infirm state of his health to take any very active part in politics, 
 he devoted the greater part of his time to literary pursuits. Lord 
 Hardwicke was a writer both in prose and verse. While an under- 
 graduate at Cambridge, he was a contributor to the " Athenian Letters." 
 He published also " State Papers," and the " Life of Sir Dudley Carle- 
 ton." Some of his poetical compositions may be met wdth in the 
 Cambridge Collection of Verses. He was the friend of Birch, Soame 
 Jenyns, and Dr. Young, all three of whom have dedicated some of 
 their works to him. He was also in correspondence with Robertson, 
 Hume, and Garrick. His private letters, many of which appear in 
 these pages, convey a favourable impression of his abilities.
 
 6 FIRST DAY OF [l760. 
 
 true, only to his own relations, but the remarks apply 
 equally to the party of which the Yorke family were 
 leading members. 
 
 "In the beginning of the new reign," writes Lord 
 Hardwicke, " no apparent alteration happened in our 
 situation, — we were cajoled and courted for the first 
 weeks of it : in short, the exterior was fair and plausible ; 
 but, in reality. Lord Bute had the sole power and 
 influence ; and he was determined to work out the 
 old servants of the crown, as soon as he possibly could 
 bring it about, notwithstanding the many difliculties 
 which seemed to be in the way of it. How he accom- 
 plished this great task, which has made him, ever 
 since, so unhappy a man, is not within the compass of 
 this paper. It will suffice to mention, that he princi- 
 pally availed himself, with great art and finesse, of the 
 dissensions between the Duke of Newcastle and Mr. 
 Pitt ; that he played off" one against the other occasion- 
 ally, till he had got rid of the popular minister; and 
 when that was compassed, he strengthened himself in 
 the cabinet, by bringing in Lord Egremont and Mr. 
 Grenville, and never left intriguing till he had rendered 
 it impracticable for the old Duke to continue in office 
 with credit or honour." 
 
 With the tenderness which characterized the Whis 
 of that period towards a prince of the dynasty of its 
 own adoption. Lord Hardwicke has omitted to mention 
 Lord Bute's most effective coadjutor, in playing off 
 Newcastle against Pitt,— the sovereign himself; who, in 
 all the mysteries of king-craft, so far, at least, as they
 
 17(J0.] THE king's REIGN. 7 
 
 consisted in " art and finesse," was perhaps the more 
 accomplished adept of the two. To the truth of this 
 charge, the transactions of the very first day of his reign 
 bear evidence. 
 
 Early on the 26th of October, 1760, his grandfather, 
 George the Second, had risen apparently in his usual 
 health. At half-past seven of the same morning he had 
 ceased to breathe. His death took the nation, but not 
 his successor, by surprise. " The Princess Amelia," 
 says Walpole, " as soon as she was certain of her father's 
 death, sent an account of it to the Prince of Wales, 
 but he had already been apprized of it. He was riding, 
 and received a note from a German valet de chambre^ 
 with a private mark agreed upon between them. "With- 
 out surprise or emotion, without dropping a word that 
 indicated what had happened, he said his horse was 
 lame, and turned back to Kew. At dismounting, he 
 said to the groom, " I have said this horse was lame, I 
 forbid you to say to the contrary." 
 
 From Kew, the new king went to Carlton House, 
 which then belonged to the Princess Dowager, Here 
 he first met his ministers. The account of what passed 
 at that interview, and the manner in which he adroitly 
 "played off" one minister against the other, are given 
 in the following letter from his first Lord of the Treasury, 
 written the day after the demise of the Crown.
 
 8 DUKE OF NEWCASTLE [17G0. 
 
 TUE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE TO THE EARL OF HARDAVICKE. 
 
 " Cockpit,* October 26, 1760. 
 " I WILL give you a short account of what passed 
 since our ever to be lamented loss. Mr. Martin f had 
 
 * From the Cockpit at Whitehall, Philip Herbert, Earl of Pem- 
 broke and Montgomery saw Charles the First walk from St. James's 
 to the scaftbld. Here, in the Council Chambers, Guiscard stabbed 
 Harley, Earl of Oxford, 
 
 " And fixed disease in Harley's closing life." 
 
 Thus far Cunningham's " London." What follows is from the pen of 
 that most excellent man and upright, intelligent judge, the late Lord 
 Chief Justice Tindal to his niece Mrs. Frederic West, who obligingly, at 
 my request, wrote to him for the information it contains. " As to your 
 enquiry about the Cockpit, you will find frequent mention of it in the 
 time of Charles the Second and James the Second, both in Evelyn's 
 " Memoirs " and in Pepys's. At that time it was used for the purpose 
 its name denotes, frequent matches of cock-fighting being carried on 
 there by the Court, forming part, as it did, of the Palace of West- 
 minster, close behind the place where the Treasury now stands. 
 Queen Anne, of course, did not indulge in such unladylike amuse- 
 ments ; and the graver manners of the Court during the succeeding 
 reigns, soon put the site upon which it stood to a more useful destina- 
 tion ; for it was turned into a Court for the Committee of the Privy 
 Council to sit in, on the decision of all Prize causes, all appeals from 
 the courts in the colonies of Jersey and Guernsey, and the like. 
 
 " There is at this moment, nearly on the same spot, a new court 
 fn- the same purposes, forming part of the Treasury buildings. I my- 
 self have fought many matches there when I was at the bar, not with 
 warlike birds armed with steel spurs, but with the more peaceable 
 weapons of argument, and at this day I not unfrequently form one 
 of the judges there to decide the contests of the combatants." 
 
 t Samuel Martin, Member for Camelford, Secretary of the Trea- 
 sury. He owed this office to l\Ir, Legge, and was the earliest deser- 
 ter from Newcastle's standard. He earned for himself considerable 
 notoriety by his_duel with Wilkes, whom he shot through the body.
 
 1760.] TO LORD HARDWICKE. 9 
 
 orders to send to me yesterday upon the road, to come 
 immediately to the new King at Carlton House. I 
 first went to Kensington, and there put on my clothes, 
 and went to Carlton House, where I expected to meet 
 the council; but, upon my arrival, found Mr. Martin. 
 He explained it, that I was to come alone. Imme- 
 diately my Lord Bute came to me, and told me that 
 the King would see me before anybody, or before he 
 went to council; that compliments from him, Lord Bute, 
 now were unnecessary ; that he had been, and should 
 be my friend, — I should see it. I made suitable returns, 
 and was called in to the King. He began by telling 
 me, that he desired to see me before he went to council ; 
 that he had always a very good opinion of me ; he knew 
 my constant zeal for his family, and my duty to his 
 grandfather, which he thought would be pledges or 
 proofs of my zeal for him. I said very truly, that no 
 one subject His Majesty had, wished him more ease, 
 honour, tranquillity, and success in the high station to 
 which Providence had now called him ; and I think I 
 cannot show my duty to my late royal master better, 
 than by contributing the little in my power, to the ease 
 
 He is said to have practised at a target six months before he uttered 
 the words which led to the hostile meeting. As ministerial favours 
 quickly succeeded this affair, Churchill assumes that he took this step 
 as the readiest way to acquire or regain them. In his " Duellist," 
 the poet speaks of Martin, as, 
 
 " Placing his craft in confidence, 
 And making honour a pretence 
 To do a deed of deepest shame, 
 Whilst filthy lucre is his aim."
 
 10 LETTER TO LORD HARDWICKE. [1760. 
 
 and success of the reign of his grandson and successor. 
 His Majesty said these remarkable words, ' My Lord 
 Bute is your good friend^ to which I replied, I thought 
 my Lord Bute was so. Mr. Pitt was not sent for to 
 Carlton House till some time after I had been there, 
 and suspects, and, indeed said, the declaration was 
 concerted with me, whereas I did not know one single 
 word of it till the King communicated it to my Lord 
 Halifax, Mr. Pitt and myself, and ordered me to read 
 it, which I did very clearly and distinctly. His 
 Majesty then said these words, ' Is there anything 
 wrong in point of form f ' We all bowed and went 
 out of the closet. Mr. Pitt afterwards said he did not 
 hear it distinctly, particularly the last words. I then, 
 from memory, repeated it to him. 
 
 " He wrote last night to Lord Bute. He had a con- 
 ference of two hours, and told me that, as far as related 
 to himself, Mr. Pitt, it was as satisfactory as he could 
 wish. In short, Pitt was extremely hurt with the 
 declaration projected, executed and entered in the 
 council books, of which he had no previous notice. It 
 was at first ' engaged in a bloody ivar.'' ' That,' 
 says Pitt, 'is false in the English part of it, we are 
 sine clade victor y'' and that the last words about 
 ' peace ' certainly hurt him ; he said the ' allies ' were 
 left out; and to be short, it is altered, and Mr. Pitt's 
 words were put in, but Lord Bute is not pleased." 
 
 * From front to rear the bloodless victor sped, 
 
 Mowed down the embattled field, and wide the slaughter spread. 
 
 Fkancis's Horace, B. iv., Od. 14,
 
 1700.] DUKE OF NEWCASTLE. 11 
 
 Mr. Harris, who has given this letter in eMenso^ in 
 his Life of Chancellor Harclwicke, has made two errors, 
 one of omission, the other of commission, which mate- 
 rially weaken the point of Mr. Pitt's remarks. The 
 learned biographer has not given the Latin quotation, 
 and he has written " words " instead of " allies." The 
 last word of the following paragraph from the King's 
 Speech will point out the latter erratum, and the words 
 in italics will show the epithet which Pitt substituted 
 for " bloody. ^^ 
 
 " And as I mount the throne in the midst of an 
 ea^pensive but just mid necessary war, I shall endeavour 
 to execute it in the manner likely to bring on an 
 honourable and lasting peace in concert with my 
 ' ALLIES.' " 
 
 It is with much diffidence I venture to appear as an 
 apologist for the writer of the foregoing letter. Forty- 
 six years of public service have procured for the Duke 
 of Newcastle notoriety rather than reputation. Few 
 portraits, indeed, have been sketched by so many un- 
 friendly hands. Smollett, King, Glover, Chesterfield, 
 Walpole, Waldegrave, Dodington, have each assailed 
 him in turn. He was, in fact, the butt against which 
 contemporary ridicule levelled all its shafts. That he 
 was fretful, busy, intriguing, unmethodical, and self- 
 sufficient; that his demeanour lacked dignity, and that 
 he mistook expedients for principles, cannot be denied ; 
 indeed his numerous unpublished letters, to which 
 I have had access, rather corroborate than weaken 
 the fidelity with which these traits have been deli-
 
 12 DUKE OF NEWCASTLE. [1700. 
 
 neated. But his contemporaries would see only the 
 superficial and ridiculous points of Newcastle's cha- 
 racter. They would not do justice to his many sterling 
 good qualities. He was courteous, affable, accessible, 
 humane, a warm friend, a placable enemy. His 
 talents were not sufficiently appreciated. They were 
 far above mediocrity. It was his want of method that 
 made them not more generally available. He both 
 spoke and wrote with ability and readiness. Upon his 
 private life rested no stain, and in an age of political 
 immorality he was one of the most personally disin- 
 terested men of his day. He understood clearly our 
 relations with the continental states. His views of 
 civil and religious freedom were in advance of his 
 age, and he acted on them whenever his fears, his 
 jealousies, or his ambition — a most comprehensive ex- 
 ception indeed — permitted his opinions to affect his 
 conduct. His faults were obvious; he clung indeco- 
 rously to place and power. But it does not appear 
 that either its emoluments or even honours were the 
 real attractions of office. Newcastle, like the Sergeant- 
 at-Law in Chaucer's tale, had a morbid appetite for 
 employment : — 
 
 " No whar so besy a man as he thar n'as, 
 And yet he seemyd besier than he was." 
 
 To this restless craving for occupation, may be 
 ascribed the Duke's officious intermeddling with the 
 departments of his colleagues, and his querulous jealousy 
 of the least interference with that over which he himself 
 presided. Like an enthusiastic chess-player, he would
 
 1700.] EARL OF CIIATILUr. 13 
 
 eagerly direct Jinotlier's moves, while he would hardly 
 endure even a looker on at his own game. . 
 
 In the following pages frequent mention will be made M^jjJ 
 of Newcastle's great contemporary, William Pitt, after- 
 wards Earl of Chatham. Original documents will be 
 produced illustrative of his character and his policy. 
 Should this eminent statesman appear in an unfa- 
 vourable light, the reader is requested to weigh well 
 the authorities before he rejects the verdict. There 
 is no wish to derogate from Lord Chatham's real 
 merits. Yet the writer of these pages cannot overlook 
 the almost concurrent testimony of his contemporaries, 
 or conceal from himself that Pitt's reputation was more 
 specious than solid. His brilliancy as an orator, in 
 fact, obscured as "with excess of light" his errors as 
 a statesman. Much will remain to him when the 
 glare has been removed from his renown ; but the 
 public has been too prone to take Lord Chatham at his 
 own estimate of himself, and not to have distinguished 
 sufficiently between the dazzling surfiice and the sub- 
 stantial worth. Few public men, indeed, present a more 
 imposing aspect to posterity. 
 
 The effect of his eloquence is unquestioned, but his 
 speeches themselves have been scantily recorded. He 
 was at once the Cicero and the Roscius of his age ; a 
 great orator, and a consummate actor. As a member of 
 the cabinet, he was incredibly haughty, impracticable, 
 and even obstructive to his colleagues. As a leader of 
 opposition, he was more formidable as an assailant than 
 faithfrd to his adherents or consistent in his measures.
 
 L« 
 
 14 EARL OF CHATHAM. [1760. 
 
 To his sovereign, he was alternately harsh and sub- 
 servient; to the nation he was an energetic, but a 
 costly and hazardous guide, never scrupling to arouse 
 passion, or to incur debt where glory was to be won 
 " in flood or field." Finally, as a statesman, he dis- 
 played rather the accomplishments of a Bolingbroke 
 than the solid prudence of a Burleigh. He shone 
 principally as a war minister. His talent for con- 
 ducting military operations blinded him to the disastrous 
 effects of war to his own country, and to mankind. 
 Of social improvements, or financial skill, he exhibited 
 no proofs.* He rendered his country glorious rather 
 than prosperous : and he bequeathed to his successors, 
 the dangerous rather than the salutary precedent of 
 preferring "arms to the gown." 
 
 These were his defects, and they were grievous; but 
 his virtues too were singular and illustrious, especially 
 if they be measured by the general standard of his age. 
 " His private life," as Lord Chesterfield justly remarks, 
 " was stained by no vice, and sullied by no meanness." 
 His habits were domestic, his sentiments lofty, his 
 knowledge was various, and his taste refined. His 
 letters to his nephew. Lord Camelford, breathe a noble 
 and generous spirit, and abound in weighty sense and 
 graceful diction. Throughout his correspondence with 
 his wife and his illustrious son, pervades a tenderness 
 
 j * Junius's Letters, xi. : " I entirely agree with Macaroni, that this 
 
 i country does owe more to Lord Chatham than it ever can repay, for 
 
 1 to him we owe the greatest part of our national debt, and that, I am 
 
 * sure, we never can repay."
 
 17(30.] DUG DE CIIOISEUL. 16 
 
 which shows that his arrogance was part of his theatrical, 
 rather than of his natural temper. He was made up of 
 contrasts. It is much easier to eulogise or to condemn 
 him, than to draw a just portrait. lie was a man to be 
 loved and to be feared equally. To him belongs the 
 merit of having been the first to raise the standard of 
 morality in public men. To him also, unfortunately, 
 clings the discredit of raising his voice at all seasons 
 for open war, from the moment when on first entering 
 parliament he promoted a rupture Avith Spain, in 
 order to overthrow an obnoxious minister, to the time 
 when, with his dying breath, he braved the enmity of 
 Europe, rather than forego the claims of England to 
 supremacy over emancipated America. The letters 
 which are interspersed in this work will show the 
 strong and various inconsistencies of this powerful, 
 rather than great statesman. 
 
 The councils of France were, at this time, guided by 
 Etienne Francois Due de Choiseul, a man Avho rivalled 
 Pitt in the boldness of his measures and the energy of 
 his character, as he resembled him in his public and 
 private profusion. The common ancestor of the De 
 Choiseuls was Regnier, Comte de Choiseul, who flou- 
 rished in 1060. 
 
 The Duke has been described by a contemporary, as 
 being " of an excessive ugliness ; " but this plainness 
 was redeemed by the brilliancy of his eyes and the 
 intelligent expression of his countenance. His man- 
 ners were gay, flippant and presumptuous. He was 
 thoroughly unguarded in his language, and careless
 
 IG DUG DE CIIOISEUL. [l7G0. 
 
 whom he offended. The Dauphin having complained 
 to Louis the Fifteenth of his conduct, Choiseul replied, 
 — " That he might have the misfortune to become his 
 subject, but that he would never be his servant." His 
 wit clever, pointed, and satirical, vented itself in epi- 
 grams and hons mois^ and the bitter irony of his remarks 
 is said to have suggested to Gresset, the original of 
 Cleon, in the comedy of Le Mechant. He commenced 
 his career as a soldier, as Comte de Stainville, and 
 acquired much distinction in his profession. 
 
 The favour of Madame de Pompadour turned him 
 from war to diplomacy. After obtaining, through her 
 influence, the embassies of Eome and Vienna, he suc- 
 ceeded, in 1757, Cardinal Bernis as minister of foreign 
 affairs. From this period Choiseul became virtually the 
 head of the French Cabinet, although he was never 
 formally invested with the title of Minister. It was in 
 vain that Pitt enfeebled the armies, and annihilated 
 the navies of France. Choiseul reinvigorated the one 
 and replaced the other, and by his famous "Family 
 Compact," in 1761, he united once more against Eng- 
 land, the sovereigns of the House of Bourbon. His 
 firmness long secured for him the confidence even of 
 an unstable and profligate master, while his expulsion 
 of the Jesuits in 1764, rendered him the darling of 
 the French nation. His name was in every mouth, 
 his portrait on every snuff-box. In the following 
 extract, from a letter of the Duke of Newcastle to 
 Lord Eockingham, 8th of July 1767, we have a con- 
 temporary glimpse of Choiseul's renown. " France,
 
 1761.] EARL OF IIARDWICKE, 17 
 
 everybody knows, is master of Spain, and those two 
 monarchies are as efFcctiially united as if they were 
 under one head. The Due de Choiseul, the present 
 sole minister, absolute, ablet bold, and enterprising^ and I 
 suppose no friend in heart to us. Their army complete 
 to a man, well officered, well appointed, and well paid. 
 Their trade flourishing everywhere, and encroaching 
 upon ours, and I am afraid, after what has passed, their 
 credit as stable as ours." 
 
 Choiseul had risen by the favour of one royal mis- 
 tress: he owed his fall to the displeasure of another. 
 Having by some biting sarcasm oflended the notorious 
 Madame du Barri, he was, in 1770, driven by her 
 intrigues from the capital. His departure was an 
 ovation. His exile on his estate at Chantilly thinned 
 the halls of Versailles. For all great and good men 
 shunned the court of the sovereign, while a splendid 
 and select society flocked to the retreat of the banished 
 minister. Madame du Deffand has drawn an agreeable 
 picture of the retirement of the Due and Duchesse de 
 Choiseul; and the Abbe Barth(^lemi has introduced 
 them into his " Anacharsis," under the names of Arsane 
 and Phedame. 
 
 If the suffrages of contemporaries and posthumous 
 history may be accepted as proofs of extraordinary 
 merit, Philip Yorke, first Earl of Ilardwicke, may be 
 justly considered a great man. His greatness, indeed, 
 had not the glare of Pitt's reputation; it was rather 
 forensic than parliamentary, and more judicial than 
 either. His gifts were both natural and acquired. He 
 
 yOL. I. c 
 
 ^1
 
 18 CHARACTER OF [17G1. 
 
 had nearly all the qualities of a great orator, and nearly 
 every charm of personal demeanour. His manners per- 
 haps would have been more attractive if he could have 
 acquired a little more ease. But a certain degree of 
 stateliness was natural to him. He lived on terms of 
 intimate friendship with his sons, yet he would address 
 them as " Dear Lord Royston," and " Dear Mr. Yorke." 
 As a Judge, his demeanour was perfect. " When Lord 
 Hardwicke," said Lord Mansfield — an admirable critic 
 of eloquence and law — " pronounced his decrees. Wis- 
 dom herself might be supposed to speak." His appoint- 
 ment to tlie Great Seal forms an era in our juris- 
 prudence He resigned it, indeed, in 1756, but he was 
 still regarded as the ministerial leader in the House of 
 Lords. George the Second held Lord Hardwicke in 
 such esteem, that during his frequent absences from 
 England he six times appointed him one of the Lords 
 Justices for administering the affairs of Government. 
 In the cabinet and on the woolsack he was indeed " a 
 counsellor well fitted to advise.'' To the strictest 
 integrity he added consummate knowledge of the law ; 
 to his professional experience he brought acquaintance 
 with men and manners, and his skill in foreign politics 
 and international jurisprudence equalled his learning in 
 the statute book. His eloquence was of the grave, 
 deliberative kind. It did not arouse the passions, but it 
 convinced the reason of his audience. His arguments 
 were a chain of demonstrations; his illustrations were 
 enforced by expressive and handsome features, and by 
 dignified and graceful gestures. The moral character
 
 1761.] THE EARL OF IIARDWICKE. 19 
 
 of Lord Ilardvvicke corresponded with his public career; 
 he was temperate and consistent. In the bosom of his 
 family he was as indulgent and estimable as Pitt him- 
 self, while to his friends and colleagues he was more 
 equable and trustworthy. His staunch Whig politics 
 did not render him a mere partisan. He gave reasons 
 for his faith, and indeed inclined rather more to the 
 side of Prerogative than was acceptable to some of his 
 political associates. A noble, serene, and deeply learned 
 man, Lord Hardwicke may be regarded as the most 
 able member of the administration which George the 
 Third inherited from his predecessor. 
 
 c 2
 
 20 FRENCH INVASION MENACKD. f 17(51. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 MENACED INVASION OP 1759. FRANCE SUES FOR PEACE. — HANS 
 
 STANLEY. ABBE DE BUSSY. DUKE OF NEWCASTLE TO LORD HARD- 
 
 WICKE. NEGOCIATIONS FOR PEACE. LORD HARDWICKE TO VISCOUNT 
 
 ROYSTON. CHARACTER OF THE DUKE OF BEDFORD. DUKE OF NEW- 
 CASTLE TO LORD HARDWICKE. LORD HARDWICKE TO LORD ROYSTON. 
 
 THE PACIFIC PROFESSIONS OF FRANCE CONSIDERED DUKE OF 
 
 NEWCASTLE TO LORD HARDWICKE. MR. PITT RESIGNS THE SEALS. 
 
 LETTERS FROM DR. BIRCH AND SOAME JENYNS. 
 
 Early in 1759, France declared her intention of 
 making a descent upon the British coast. This was 
 but the repetition of a menace which, uttered three 
 years before, had caused consternation, disaster, and 
 disgrace throughout the land, and led to the judicial 
 murder of Admiral Byng. But in the interval between 
 the first and second threat, the helm of state passed 
 from the trembling hands of Newcastle into the firm 
 grasp of the elder Pitt. The change soon became 
 manifest; a few months after France had made the 
 boastful announcement, her troops had been beaten, 
 her fleets annihilated, her commerce destroyed, her 
 colonies rendered valueless, and her credit reduced 
 to so low an ebb that her government was obliged to 
 declare itself bankrupt in no less than eleven descrip- 
 tions of stock.
 
 17(5 I.J MR. STANLEY, 21 
 
 In this desperate state of affaii's, Choiseul sued for 
 peace. But Pitt, who thought the prosperity of a 
 country depended upon conquests, rather than com- 
 merce, and who fully partook of the vulgar prejudice, 
 that " France is our natural enemy," turned a deaf 
 ear to every offer of accommodation. " Some time be- 
 fore, he would," he said, " have been content to bring 
 that country on her knees, now he would not rest till 
 he had laid her on her back." * All further attempts 
 at negociation were, in consequence, for a time aban- 
 doned; but, in the spring of 1761, Choiseul, encouraged 
 by the pacific declaration of George the Third, made 
 another effort to bring hostilities to a close. His over- 
 tures were favourably received by the pacific section of 
 the Cabinet,-f- who were all agreed as to the expediency 
 of closing a war which had outlived its original objects, 
 and who so far prevailed, as to appoint three commis- 
 sioners for a general congress, to arrange that ministers 
 should be sent from the respective Courts of London and 
 France, to settle the preliminaries of peace. Augsburgh 
 was the proposed place of meeting for the commissioners. 
 
 Hans Stanley, of Paul ton's Park, New Forest, | the 
 negociator on the part of England, was grandson of 
 Sir Hans Sloane, the founder of the British Museum. 
 He was a man of awkward appearance, ungracious 
 
 * Walpole. 
 
 t The Dukes of Newcastle, Bedford, ;ind Devonshire, Lords Hard- 
 vvicke, Mansfield, and Granville, &c. 
 
 :{: Mr. William Sloane Stanley, the present possessor of Paulton's 
 Park, is great nephew of Mr. Hans Stanley.
 
 22 ABB^ DE BUSSY. [1761. 
 
 manners, irascible temper, and eccentric habits. Yet he 
 possessed considerable talents and acquirements. Lady 
 Hervey describes him as " a very ingenious, sensible, 
 knowing, conversable person, and what is still better, 
 a worthy, honest, valuable man." In the Chatham 
 administration he was appointed Ambassador to St. 
 Petersburgh. He continued to hold some office or 
 other till 1780, when he was displaced. This treat- 
 ment so preyed upon his mind that he put a period 
 to his existence. 
 
 The French minister, the Abbe de Bussy, was one 
 of the senior clerks of the French Foreign Office. He 
 had, on a former occasion, been sent by his court on 
 a mission to George the Second, whom he greatly 
 disgusted by the impertinence of his manners. The 
 King once asking him " Is there anything new in 
 Paris?" Bussy flippantly replied, "Yes! Sire, there 
 is a frost." The Abbd was adroit, persuasive, and 
 thoroughly conversant with business. He had formerly 
 been private secretary to the Due de Richelieu. He 
 was a short, thickset, deformed little man, and had the 
 nickname of Bussy Ragotin, to distinguish him from 
 Dupleix's coadjutor in the Carnatic, who was called 
 Bussy Buti7i^ and from Madame de Sevigne's agree- 
 able cousin and correspondent, the Comte de Bussy 
 Rabutin. 
 
 Beyond the appointment of these negociators, the 
 peace party in the cabinet were unable to make any 
 advance. Two days before the bearer of the French 
 olive-branch arrived in London, Pitt dispatched a large
 
 170 1. J DUKE OF NEWCASTLE TO LORD HAUDWICKE. 23 
 
 armament under tlie joint command of Major-General 
 Hodgson and Commodore Keppel, to Belleisle, in order 
 to effect the reduction of that island. " The plan," 
 says Walpole, " was by many believed calculated solely 
 to provoke the Court of France, and to break off the 
 negociation."* The language of the great war-minister 
 breathed the same spirit in the Cabinet and in the 
 royal closet, as in his public acts and demonstrations. 
 In a letter to Lord Hardwicke, dated the 15th of 
 April, 1761, the Duke of Newcastle gives an ac- 
 count of a long audience of Mr. Pitt with the King. 
 After stating that his great rival's conduct was "as 
 bad, as unjust, as hostile, and as impracticable as 
 ever came even from him," the Duke thus pro- 
 ceeds : — 
 
 " When he (Pitt) came out he told me part of it, 
 and his Majesty told me the rest. Mr. Pitt said he 
 had laid his thouglits fully before the King; that he 
 had told his Majesty that he did by no means think 
 ill of the state of the war; that he Avas far from doing 
 it with regard to the war in Germany ; that he thought 
 the total destruction of the French in the East Indies, 
 the probability of taking Martinico, and the effect 
 this expedition to Belleisle might have; as well as 
 the pi'obable events of this campaign, would enable us to 
 get a peace which should secure to us all Canada, Cape 
 Breton^ the islands, the harbours, the fisheries, and par- 
 ticularly the Ccvclusive fishery of Newfoundland ; that if 
 he was even capable of signing a treaty Avithout it, 
 
 * " Geo. in. i. 5G."
 
 24 NEGOCIATIONS [1761. 
 
 he should be sorry he had ever got again the use of 
 his right hand, which use he had but just recovered; 
 and went on railing at the Commissariat as the occasion 
 of all our misfortune. 
 
 " The King said, he was sure I had done my part, and 
 when Mr. Pitt talked of an inquiry, the King said he 
 knew I had given strict orders for a strict inquiry to 
 be made. He then told the King his scheme of peace. 
 His Majesty understood him, as I did, to mean that 
 he should at first acquaint the French Minister, who is 
 expected here, that these are the terms from which we 
 will not depart. His Majesty reasoned strongly with 
 him against making any such declaration ... I with- 
 drew fully satisfied with the King and myself, but more 
 sensible of the injustice and ingratitude of Mr. Pitt 
 |, than ever man was. I told the King, whenever any 
 measure of his own (Pitt's) miscarried he would fling 
 the blame upon anybody to get off himself — King of 
 Prussia, Elector of Hanover, or any other person what- 
 ever. Mr. Pitt talked strange stuff to me. Upon the 
 whole, I look upon all he said to me for a menace, in 
 which he will be greatly disappointed; but at the same 
 time I see what T am to expect from him and his blood- 
 liounds." 
 
 In the course of the negociations, France proposed to 
 guarantee Canada to England, and, in return for this 
 concession, desired a confirmation of the same privilege 
 of fishing on the coast of Newfoundland, that had been 
 enjoyed by her subjects under the treaty of Utrecht; 
 that Cape Breton should be restored as an abri or point
 
 17U1.] FOR PEACE. 26 
 
 of refuge for their fishermen. Upon this proposal the 
 Duke of Newcastle writes as follows to the Earl of 
 Ilardwicke : — 
 
 "August 7th, 1761. 
 " The method I would propose to your consideration is 
 this, that after M. Bussy has received and executed his 
 orders, and Mr. Pitt has had Mr. Stanley's full account 
 and observations which he has promised, we should 
 propose to state our real ultimatum^ which we should 
 make as low and as near to that we may judge would 
 be accepted as possible. The great point is that of tlie 
 fisheries; the rest, I think, may be accommodated. 
 
 " Whether there is a right to fish in the Gulf of 
 St. Lawrence, or whether that part of the sea is pro- 
 perly called ilf«re Clausum or Mare Liberum^^ I can't 
 pretend to say, but it is what Mr. Pitt has ever been 
 fencing against, and is, to be sure, in itself a consider- 
 able question in point of interest and navigation. The 
 next point is the giving some unfortified place, a port 
 in those seas as a place of refreshment or refuge for 
 their seamen. 
 
 " But the great point to be thoroughly weighed and 
 considered is what will, what must be the consequence 
 of our breaking off this negociation for peace, and 
 continuing this dangerous and expensive war, and 
 whether after many more millions spent, and many 
 thousand more valuable lives lost, we may not be in 
 a condition to accept a much worse peace than we even 
 
 * This is in allusion to two celebrated treatises by Selden and 
 Grotius in the preceding century.
 
 26 LORD HARDWICKE [1701. 
 
 now may have, and infinitely worse than we might have 
 had three years ago." 
 
 At the same time that M. de Bussy presented the 
 French ultimatum to our Government, he wrote to Mr. 
 Pitt to beg for a conference upon its contents. The 
 British Minister drew up an answer to the application, 
 and laid it before the Cabinet Council on the 13th 
 of the month; " Not," writes the Duke of Devonshire, 
 "as a document to be deliberated upon, but as a 
 decision to be adopted."* 
 
 This statement is confirmed in the following letter, 
 which furnishes a forcible illustration of the haughty 
 tone which Pitt habitually adopted towards such of his 
 colleagues as happened to differ from him. 
 
 EARL OF HARDWICKE TO VISCOUNT ROYSTON. 
 
 " Grosvenor Square, August 15th, 17G1. 
 
 " Tired with the attendance of two very long dis- 
 agreeable days, I sit down to thank you for your kind 
 letter of the 11th. Our fii'st meeting was on Thursday 
 (13th), when we sat from half-an-hour past one till 
 half-an-hour past seven; and yesterday (14th), from 
 two till half-an-hour after five. Very stormy they 
 
 were ; but we rid out the tempest. IVIr. P had no 
 
 conference with Bussy, though the latter had asked 
 one by letter. ^; The reasons assigned for declining it, 
 
 * Wiffen's House of Russell, ii. 472. 
 
 t "M. de Bussy to Mr. Pitt. August 5th, I7CI: — If your
 
 170 1.] TO LORD ROYSTON. 27 
 
 were taken from some passages in the letter, relative to 
 the return of the French memorial concerning Spain, and 
 of the other concerning the King of Prussia's countries 
 and places conquered by the arms of France ;'"" but more 
 particularly by reason of a strong complaint made of 
 the ' Ton imperatif et peu fait pour la negotiation,' 
 used in the letter, sending back those two memorials, 
 and in the paper of points. We know that the draught 
 of Bussy's letter was transmitted to him in licec verba by 
 the Due de Choiseul, with orders to send it as it was. 
 You guess who was much hurt by this ; though in my 
 conscience, I think the balance of words is still on our 
 side. After much altercation, and some thumps of the 
 fist on the table, it was at last carried (on my motion), 
 that the conference should be had ; but not without an 
 answer to Bussy's letter, by which the interview was 
 to be appointed. The meeting of yesterday was pro- 
 fessedly upon the draught of that answer. It was 
 produced : much too long and too irritating, f Several 
 objections were humbly made, and strongly supported ; 
 but not a word would be parted with. ' We would not 
 suffer our draught to be cobbled!' Neither side 
 receded, but it will go as drawn. If, after this letter, 
 
 excellency is desirous of having a conference with me on the subject 
 of the ultimatum, I will attend your commands." — Par. Hist. xv. 
 1055. 
 
 * French Ultimatum. — " As to what concerns Wesel, Gueldres, 
 and other countries in Westphalia, belonging to the King of Prussia, 
 which are actually in the possession of the Empress Queen, the King 
 (of France) cannot stipulate to surrender the conquests of his allies." 
 — Par. Hist. + See Parliamentary History, xv. 1059.
 
 28 CHARACTER OF [1761. 
 
 Bussy agrees to the conference witliout fresli orders 
 from his Court, I shall think it a good sign, that 
 France has no mind to break off the negociation. 
 A long letter was read from your friend Stanley,* of 
 just half a quire of folio paper, in a close hand. It 
 is a very able one, though witli a mixture of flights 
 and improprieties. But he says in so many words, 
 that he is absolutely convinced and sure, that the 
 French Court will as soon part with a province of 
 old France, as with the entire fishery^ and that he is 
 no more attended to when he talks upon that subject, 
 than if he talked of Japan. M. de Choiseul says he 
 should be pulled to pieces in the streets of Paris. 
 There are also some civil but strong observations upon 
 the style of his principal,! which you may be sure con- 
 tributed not a little to the ill-humour. I remember Sir 
 Robert Walpole used to say that two nations might be 
 writ into a war, and so I think they may into per- 
 petuating a war." 
 
 All the members of the Whig cabinet were opposed 
 to this warlike policy, with the exception of Pitt 
 himself, and his brother-in-law Lord Temple. But 
 the real, if not the acknowledged leader of the advocates 
 of peace, was John Russell, fourth Duke of Bedford. 
 Upon him alone"flie loud thunders and supercilious 
 bearing of the great commoner, made no impression. 
 
 * " Article IV. of the answer of the Britisli Minister to the 
 ultiiiiiiluin of Franco." — See Par. Hist. xv. lOCy. 
 t Mr. Pitt.
 
 1701.] THE DUKE OF BEDFORD. 29 
 
 " When they Avantcd to combat Pitt," says Horace 
 Walpole, "they always summoned the Duke of Bedford." 
 The noble author of the Reform Bill, has, I think, suc- 
 cessfully rescued his great grandfather's reputation 
 from the virulence of Junius and other assailants. 
 For that viridence, there were at the time many pre- 
 texts. The Duke's character presented several points 
 of attack to his adversaries. Plis abilities were rather 
 solid than brilliant. He was an inelegant speaker; 
 although, in the opinion of an admirable judge of par- 
 liamentary eloquence,* "he was not Avithout some reason- 
 ing matter, and method." But neither by his oratory 
 nor by his pen was he qualified to demolish argument, 
 or to blunt and intimidate invective. He filled with 
 credit to himself, many of the highest offices in the state, 
 and while at the head of the Admiralty, contributed 
 greatly to improve the efficiency of the navy. His 
 feelings were naturally warm ; but neither in friendship 
 nor in enmity was he very discriminating. He was 
 more under the influence of domestic and social pre- 
 possessions, than was quite salutary for his public 
 character: for his relations were Tories, and his com- 
 panions profligates, and the prejudices and excesses of 
 his own circle reacted upon his own estimation with the 
 world. Hence the Duke of Bedford was often held re- 
 sponsible for errors of conduct from which he was him- 
 self really exempt. In his case, the proverb " noscitur 
 ex sociis," was applied in its full extent, and to his 
 general disadvantage. Partly through the vices im- 
 
 * Chesterfield.
 
 30 DUKE OF NEWCASTLE [l7Gl. 
 
 puted to him, and partly from his facility in adopting 
 the tone of his companions, he became one of the most 
 unpopular men of his day. Prior to his departure 
 for his embassy, he was hooted by the mob, and as he 
 was getting into the boat at Brighton, that was to 
 convey him to the packet, some one in the crowd called 
 out, "It is not the first time he has turned his back 
 on Old England."' 
 
 In two respects posterity will judge of the Duke more 
 impartially than his contemporaries could do. He was 
 not, like them, dazzled by the glare of war, and he 
 held doctrines analogous to those of free trade. Thus 
 the very opinions which render his descendant and 
 namesake " so known, so honoured " by his country- 
 men in these our times, were the source of obloquy 
 and misrepresentation to the " John Russell " of the 
 eighteenth century. 
 
 Indignant at the dictation to which the Duke of 
 Bedford had been subjected in the two " long disagree- 
 able days " to which Lord Hardwicke refers, his grace 
 declared his determination of taking no further part 
 in deliberations upon which there was to be no exercise 
 of private judgment. A like assurance was made by 
 the Duke of Devonshire, and on the 17th of August 
 the Duke of Newcastle apprises Lord Hardwicke of his 
 resolution to desire the King's leave to retire from 
 business. 
 
 " The manner," continues the Duke, " and matter 
 used and agitated in all our late meetings, the deter- 
 mined resolution to carry on this dangerous and ex-
 
 1701.] TO LORD IIARDWICKE. 31 
 
 pensive war, without considering hoio or ivith whom; 
 the treatment that the greatest and most respectable 
 persons meet with, if they presume to differ with any 
 thing that has been done, or shall be proposed, and 
 the making personal points of what ought to be free, 
 cool, and deliberate debate and consideration amongst 
 those whom his Majesty has appointed for that purpose 
 — this conduct has, and will drive every person from the 
 Council who is at liberty to go. The Duke of Bedford 
 has already taken the resolution to come no more. 
 The Duke of Devonshire the same, after the present 
 consideration of the peace be over, which will now be 
 very soon at an end. Your lordship (my great and first 
 adviser and assistant there) will not, I conclude, come 
 oftener than shall be absolutely necessary. My Lord 
 Mansfield, I conclude the same. In what situation and 
 with whom alone should I then be, if I was weak enough 
 to remain in my present station. 
 
 " But that which has determined me is this. I doubt 
 the possibility of finding twenty millions (and less would 
 not be sufficient) for carrying on the war another year. 
 I see the dreadful consequences to the public, if it 
 could be done, for it must be at such an interest as 
 must affect for ever the proprietors of above one hun- 
 dred millions in our Funds; and this, in my opinion, 
 with less chance of obtaining a good peace at the 
 end of the year 1762, than (if we had temper and 
 good disposition) there is even, at the present time; 
 and that, I think, is clearly Mr. Stanley's opinion." 
 
 Although the Court had not deviated from its in-
 
 32 PACIFIC PROFESSIONS OF FRANCE. [1761. 
 
 tention of getting rid of the Whig Administration, it 
 was most anxious to prevent their retirement at this 
 critical juncture. Lord Bute told Dodington, in the 
 early part of this year, he was not for pushing them 
 yet, for if the peace was a bad one, as it must be, 
 they would certainly proclaim that it was owing to 
 their dismission, because they were not suffered to bring 
 the great work to a happy conclusion, to whom the 
 glorious successes which had hitherto attended their 
 conducting it were entirely to be attributed.*"" In ac- 
 cordance with these views the King made it a personal 
 request to the Duke of Bedford that he would attend 
 the Cabinet Council in which the British ultimatum 
 was to be presented, and " the Duke was apprised that 
 after much discourse with Lord Bute, he would not 
 differ with them (the peace party) in the next dis- 
 cussion, but yield the opinion he had formerly ex- 
 pressed."! The Court was alarmed into this concession 
 by a dinner at Newcastle House, of which the Duke of 
 Bedford had partaken. J 
 
 Accordingly we shall find that at the next meeting 
 of the Cabinet there was a considerable abatement in 
 the tone previously adopted by the advocates for war. 
 
 * Diary, p. 433. 
 
 t Wiffen's House of Russell, iii. 474. 
 
 X Wiffen.
 
 17(51.] LORD IIARDWICKE TO LORD ROYSTON. 33 
 
 EARL OF HARDWICKE TO VISCOUNT ROYSTON. 
 
 " Grosvenor Square, August 22nd, 1761. 
 
 ' Hi motus animorum atque hsec certamina tanta, 
 Temporis exigui spatio suspensa quiescunt."* 
 
 "We had two meetings this week; the same persons 
 present. All was calm and decent. The great points 
 of liberty to fish in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and an 
 abri. Many speeches. At last, both agreed to by all. 
 Those who had the most violently opposed, professing to 
 acquiesce in the opinions of others for the sake of 
 preserving unanimity in the King's council. 
 
 " For your clearer information, I enclose two papers : 
 owe, a short abstract^ wherein you will see, in one view, 
 wherein we and France have hitherto agreed, and 
 wherein we differed. The other, notes^ which I put 
 down to assist my own memory, and from which I 
 spoke. You need not trouble yourself to send them 
 back; but bring them with you when you come to 
 town. It is also agreed to speak clearly now about 
 Dunkirk being put on the foot of the Treaty of Aix, 
 and the liberty of fishing and drying fish on Newfound- 
 land, according to the thirteenth article of the Treaty 
 
 * It is hardly necessary to point out the Httle freedom which 
 Lord Hardwicke has taken with Virgil : — 
 
 Hi motus animorum atque hsec certamina tanta, 
 Pidveris exigui /ac^w compressa quiescunt. 
 
 Virg. Georg. iv. 86-7- 
 
 VOL. L D
 
 34 PACIFIC PROFESSIONS [l701- 
 
 of Utrecht. It has also been agreed with the bonne 
 foi of the French king's declaration about Nieu- 
 port and Ostend; and that each side (after our par- 
 ticular Peace made) may assist their respective allies 
 in money only. Thus far is settled, and we meet on 
 Monday to fix the particular place for the abri^ which 
 does require information and consideration. I suppose 
 the despatch to your friend may go on Wednesday. 
 Whether this will do now, I don't pretend to prophesy, 
 but I believe it would have done some time ago. Much 
 will now turn upon the boasted union with Spain, 
 which I fear has gone a great way. I should have told 
 you, the conference between Mr. P(itt) and B(ussy) was 
 had, but that did not advance the negociation much. 
 Mr. P.'s letter to Mons. B. was sent as drawn; to which 
 B., in his answer, only says, that he should make no 
 observation upon it, than to say, that, on consideration, 
 he judged it best to leave it to his Court to determine 
 whether any answer at all, and if so, what answer 
 should be given to it; insinuating that the letter 
 would have warranted him to write to his Court for 
 further orders before he took his conference. They 
 seem to endeavour to chicane about the limits of 
 Canada on the side of the Ohio. Here we stand at 
 present." 
 
 In the early stage of the negociations, France, not 
 content with sending in to the British government her 
 own memorial of propositions, forwarded also one from 
 the Court of Madrid. Adolphus infers from this step,
 
 1761.] OF FRANCE CONSIDERED. 35 
 
 that tlie French ministers were not " sincere " in their 
 wish for peace. It is possible that the Court of Ver- 
 sailles, rather than submit to the terms which we have 
 seen Pitt Avas inclined to impose,* might have hoped 
 that another campaign would have rendered the British 
 cabinet more reasonable ; but it is hardly to be supposed 
 that France, wholly exhausted in her resources, would, 
 even with the aid of an additional ally, have wished 
 for a continuance of hostilities, or that Spain, entirely 
 dependent on her distant colonies for her revenue, would 
 have been desirous to embroil herself with the " Mistress 
 of the Seas." The characters, indeed, of the persons 
 possessing the principal influence in those countries are 
 opposed to the historian's hypothesis. 
 
 The sensual Louis regarded, as is well known, all 
 business connected with the war as a disagreeable inter- 
 ruption to that course of licentiousness into which he 
 had plunged. Madame de Pompadour, the reigning 
 favourite, was a friend to peace and England. To 
 the Duke of Choiseul, "peace," as Mr. Wiffin properly 
 observes, "was almost as necessary as to Lord Bute; 
 for, though he enjoyed the entire confidence of his 
 sovereign, he had potent enemies, and the rupture of 
 a treaty so necessary to the treasury, and the repose of 
 France, would have been fatal to his credit, and, indeed, 
 existence as a minister. Then as to Charles the Third, 
 though sovereign of Spain, and resenting the indignities 
 which England had heaped upon him as King of the 
 Two Sicilies; yet, being a wise, humane, and prudent 
 
 * See page 23, line 19. 
 
 h 2
 
 36 ' nl:gociations with France. [noi. 
 
 prince, he would hardly have wished for a war that 
 must have put a stop to those plans of internal improve- 
 ment, which he had been so anxious to introduce into 
 his country ; while his minister, Don Ricardo Wall, had 
 created himself enemies for his supposed partiality 
 towards English interests. 
 
 The most natural conclusion appears to be, that 
 France, anxious to avoid the mortifying concessions 
 which would have sunk her in the scale of nations, 
 sought the Spanish alliance, in the hope that England, 
 from the fear of involving herself in a new war, might 
 be induced to relax the rigour of her conditions. These 
 expectations may have been strengthened by the pacific 
 professions of the King and Lord Bute. Unfortunately, 
 for all the countries concerned, the course adopted by 
 France was productive of exactly contrary effects — 
 although the memorial from Spain was immediately 
 withdrawn, and the Court of Versailles disclaimed all 
 intention of offence, Mr. Pitt's resentment, so far from 
 being aj)peased, turned into a fresh channel. He ap- 
 peared to be now determined to lay Spain " on her 
 back," as well as France, and instructed Lord Bristol 
 to make the strongest remonstrances against a memo- 
 rial which, as he termed it, " best spoke its own 
 enormity." 
 
 To Mr. Pitt's angry representations, the Spanish 
 minister replied with much temper and moderation; 
 declared that the King of Spain was " absolutely free 
 from the least offence to His Majesty, and, indeed, 
 appeared disposed to set aside every claim which the
 
 1761.] LETTER TO LORD IIARDWICKE. 37 
 
 national pride of his master would allow him to con- 
 cede." 
 
 These conciliatory advances were not, however, pro- 
 ductive of an amicable adjustment. On the 18th of 
 September, Mr. Pitt laid before the Cabinet intelligence 
 which he had received of a secret treaty recently 
 concluded between France and Spain. Conceiving the 
 articles of this treaty to be adverse to the interests of 
 Great Britain, he proposed to commence a series of 
 hostile operations against Spain, and submitted a plan 
 of them to the Council. These proposals bearing the 
 signatures of himself and Lord Temple, became the sub- 
 ject of anxious discussion in the secret conclaves of the 
 advocates for peace, and of stormy debate in the three 
 Cabinet Councils which assembled to consider them. 
 
 DUKE OF NEWCASTLE TO THE EARL OF HARDWICKE. 
 
 " September 21st, 176L 
 
 " Mr. Pitt brought his paper, or rather protest, this 
 day to the King, and offered it to his Majesty, who 
 declined accepting it. My Lord Bute was present, 
 and said, 'As you. Sir, have given your reasons, and 
 those of Lord Temple, for your opinion, it is but rea- 
 sonable that those who dissent from you should give 
 theirs also.' And I think it was agreed that Mr. 
 Pitt's paper should be inserted in the minute with 
 our dissent. 
 
 " The King said to Mr. Pitt that he would take no 
 resolution with regard to Spain till Mr. Stanley was
 
 38 DUKE OF NEWCASTLE [l7fil. 
 
 arrived, for he believed he might give some necessary 
 lights with regard to Spain. Mr. Pitt seemed sur- 
 prised, but said nothing. 
 
 " When he came to Council (my Lord Mansfield, who 
 had been very ill in tlie night, was there), Mr. Pitt 
 resumed the debate, so far as related to the paper, to 
 which he was determined to adhere. 
 
 " Lord Bute spoke, and mentioned with great respect 
 your Lordship's absence, and my Lord President's, 
 which, added to the use that might be had in seeing 
 Mr. Stanley, was a reason for putting off this con- 
 sideration. Mr. Pitt replied, that he had heard all 
 that the most able men could say. He had not de- 
 parted from his first opinion, and should not; neither 
 did he see any use that Mr. Stanley could be of. Lord 
 Bute named the King as wishing to have Stanley 
 here, before his Majesty came to any decision. The 
 Duke of Devonshire and myself spoke strongly in ad- 
 hering to our former opinions. The Duke of Devon- 
 shire proposed the orders to be sent to Lord Bristol, 
 to require an explanation what the intentions of Spain 
 were, and to enter into the expedient proposed about 
 the logwood; but, at all events, in case of an unsatis- 
 factory answer, my Lord Bristol should immediately 
 come away. Lord Mansfield spoke long, not very 
 clearly, but rather on our side, laying it down that 
 it did not appear to him what operations could be un- 
 dertaken against Spain that would suffer by the delay. 
 
 " That gave Mr. Pitt a great advantage, to expatiate 
 upon his great schemes, and the almost certainty of the
 
 1761.] TO LOUD IIARDWICKE. 39 
 
 success against tlie united force of the House of Bour- 
 bon; but then there was not an hour to be lost. 
 
 " Lord M — replied, that ' if that was the case, it 
 would then appear in a very different light,' and plainly- 
 made fair weather with Mr. Pitt. 
 
 " My Lord Bute mentioned his behaviour to me after- 
 wards, and said, ' My lord., that is the man.'' * Mr. Pitt 
 adhered to his paper, said he would not execute any 
 other measure, and insinuated that the other Secretary 
 of State might do it. f Mr. Pitt lamented his situation, 
 repented of the difficulties he had been led into by the 
 French negociation, and was determined now to abide 
 by his own opinion. He spoke very long, very well, 
 and very determined, but with great politeness and 
 candour. His brother-in-law | was the very reverse ; 
 he spoke long, indeed, very pompously, very passionate, 
 very ill-bred, but very determined; and showed plainly 
 that their party was rather to quit, or at least to have 
 no share in any measure but their own. 
 
 " My Lord Temple was very abusive, and said he 
 thought ' some of the company had paid dear for their 
 whistle, relaa^ation.'' I took this up, I hope, Avith 
 spirit, and I think, to the satisfaction of my friends. 
 The meeting ended ; adjourned, as it were, sine die., for 
 Stanley ; and ]\Ir. Pitt gave his papers in form to my 
 Lord Bute, to be delivered to the King. After all was 
 over, my Lord Bute, the Duke of Devonshire, and I had 
 
 * Note by second Lord Haidwicke : — " Yet Lord Bute made 
 great use of hiin afterwards." 
 
 t Lord Bute. % Earl Temple.
 
 40 DUKE OF NEWCASTLE [1761. 
 
 a most material conference, which they desired I would 
 communicate to your Lordship. The Duke of Devon- 
 shire and I declared that no consideration or threat 
 from Mr. Pitt should make us depart from our opinion. 
 My Lord Bute said we were right; that the thing was 
 over; that after what had passed, Mr. Pitt and my 
 Lord Temple would not stay. Besides, if Mr. Pitt 
 would execute nothing but his own paper, business 
 could not go on, and, therefoi'e, he would concert with 
 us what was to be done. 
 
 " We both said that, without departing from our 
 opinion, we wished anything might be done to keep 
 Mr. Pitt; ray Lord Bute said that was impossible." 
 
 DUKE OF NEWCASTLE TO THE EARL OF HARDWICKE. 
 
 " Newcastle House, September 23rd, 1761. 
 
 " The King Avith great difficulty made Mr. Pitt leave 
 this letter * with his Majesty, and his Majesty was so 
 good as to show it to me and to the Duke of Devonshire. 
 The substance of it, to the best of my memory was, that 
 he Duke de Choiseul had sent his sister, Madame de 
 Grammont j- to him, Stanley, to desire that the nego- 
 
 * From Mr. Stanley. 
 
 t Beatrix de Choiseul Stain ville married in 1759 the Due de 
 Grammont. The duchess was a portly Amazon, with a florid com- 
 plexion, small sparkling eyes, a rough voice, and haughty, overbearing 
 manners. " Wonderfully agreeable," says Walpole, " when she 
 pleased ; a vehement friend ; rude and insolent enemy." For thirty 
 years her salons were the resort of all that was witty and gay in 
 Paris. She had an almost tmboundcd influence over lier brother.
 
 1701.] TO LORD IIARDWICKE. 41 
 
 ciation might not be broken off; that he, Choiseul, was 
 sincere for peace ; tliat the affairs of Spain should not 
 prevent it, or should he dropped; and that if Ave, Eng- 
 land, meant sincerely peace, and not to justify ourselves 
 to the public upon the measures we had taken, he, 
 Choiseul, would sincerely concert with us the measures 
 to be taken jointly with regard to our respective allies 
 in Germany. Stanley also says, ' I have this not only 
 from the Duke de Choiseul's sister, but from M. Choi- 
 seul's enemies, and from some of the highest rank and 
 distinction,^ whom the King very rightly observed to me 
 was from the Prince de Conti,* from whose house Mr. 
 
 Her memory stands charged with having availed herself of that in- 
 fluence to promote the unjust accusation against General Lally, and 
 to confirm the iniquitous and cruel sentence of death pronounced upon 
 that brave but unfortunate officer. The duchess became, in her turn, 
 the victim of a sentence equally iniquitous and cruel, as that which 
 she had instigated. In April, 1794, she was dragged with her friend, 
 la Duchesse du Chatelet, before the bloody tribunal of Fouquier 
 Tinville. She was accused of harbouring aristocrats. She haughtily 
 replied, that she would not tell a lie to save her life. At length, 
 turning round on her judge, she said, — " Que ma mort soit decidee, 
 9ela ne m'etonne pas, j'ai en quelque sort occupe I'attention du public, 
 quoique je ne me sois jamais mele d'aucune affaire depuis le com- 
 mencement de la revolution, mes principes et ma maniere de penser 
 sont connus ; mais," continued she, pointing to Madame de Chatelet, 
 " pour cet ange, en quoi vous a-t-elle offense ? elle qui n'a jamais fait 
 tort a personne et dont la vie entiere n'offre qu'un tableau de vcrtu et 
 de bienfaisance." Both were led from the tribunal to the scaffold. 
 
 * Louis Frangois de Bourbon was born in 1717, and succeeded his 
 father as Prince de Conti in 1725. At the age of eighteen he entered 
 the army, and made his first campaign with Marshal Belleisle. In 
 1744 he was sent with twenty thousand French troops to co-operate 
 with the Spaniards in the conquest of Piedmont. At the battle of
 
 42 DUKE OF NEWCASTLE [1761. 
 
 Stanley dates his letter. I find by the King that these 
 letters have made no impression upon Mr. Pitt, though 
 they have made a great one upon his Majesty and Lord 
 Bute. The King seemed so provoked and so weary, that 
 his Majesty was inclined to put an end, at all events, to 
 the uncertainty about Mr. Pitt. I told my Lord Bute 
 of it, who admitted what I said to him, but observed 
 very rightly, that the King went too fast. He said, 
 Mr. Pitt had given in his opinion in writing to the 
 King, which the King showed me this day. It is signed 
 
 Temple (P.S.) 
 W. Pitt." 
 
 Coni he had his cuirass pierced in two places, and two horses shot 
 under him. He served subsequently in Germany and Flanders. He 
 returned to Paris at the time of the peace, devoted himself to litera- 
 ture, and associated with the most distinguished men of letters of his 
 day. Some of his poetry has been preserved. Siding with those who 
 were in opposition to the measures of the Court, the Prince incurred 
 the displeasure of Louis the Fifteenth, who nicknamed him " mon 
 cousin I'avocat." " The Prince of Conti," writes Lord Tavistock to 
 his father in 1764, " has gained great credit in the affairs of the par- 
 liament this winter, and continues very full of employment." * In 
 the following reign he supported the parliaments in their opposition to 
 the economical reforms of Turgot. It is said that shortly before his 
 death (which happened in 1776), he caused his coffin to be brought 
 to him, and caused himself to be placed in it to see how it would fit. 
 " He was," says Walpole, " handsome and royal in his figure, gracious 
 at times, but arrogant, overbearing, luxurious, and expensive." 
 
 * Bedford Correspondence, iii. 260.
 
 1701. J TO LORD IIARUWICKE. 43 
 
 DUKE OF NEWCASTLE TO THE EARL OF HARDWICKE. 
 
 " Clareinont, September 26th, 1761. 
 
 " The lords, without exception, that is, our friends, 
 have all been severally with the King, and have spoken 
 their opinions boldly to his Majesty. The King told me 
 nobody spoke stronger than my Lord Mansfield; and 
 his Majesty is much pleased with my Lord Halifax. 
 I am sorry to acquaint you, that yesterday a second 
 letter was received from Mr. Stanley (copies of which I 
 here enclose, and beg that you will return them to me) ; 
 that Stanley, contrary to Ids declaration in his last letter 
 of the 25th, is coining away tvithout either waiting for, 
 or putting M. Choiseul in mifid of the memorial he 
 promised us. I suppose he thought his orders were too 
 strong for him to dare to disobey them. 
 
 " Mr. Pitt saw the King yesterday, but said not one 
 word upon Stanley's letter. He triumphs much upon 
 Grimaldi's letter,* and I suppose will do no more upon that 
 very remarkable expression in Stanley^ s, ' when Spain 
 declares war, I suspect an attack upon Portugal.'' This, 
 my Lord Bute says, supposes a resolution in Spain to 
 
 * The Marquis Geronimo Grimaldi was at this time ambassador 
 from the King of Spain to the Court of Versailles. He was a member 
 of a noble Genoese family. He had been originally intended for the 
 church, and received his education at Rome. In the time of Philip 
 the Fifth, he was the representative of his native republic at the 
 Court of Madrid, where he was known as the handsome Abbe. 
 There he so wormed himself into the good graces of the King, as to 
 be retained in his service. Before he went to Paris, he had been 
 sent by the Court of Madrid in a diplomatic capacity to Sweden and
 
 44 LETTER TO LORD HARDWICKE. [l76l. 
 
 declare war. But, however iinforturiate that may be, 
 it by no means justifies Mr. Pitt's advice, ' To break 
 first with t/iem.'' The Kincj seems every day more 
 offended ivith Mr. Pitt, and plainly wa.nts to get ond of 
 him at all events^ 
 
 On the 20th of September, Mr. Stanley demanded 
 his passports, and shortly afterwards arrived in Eng- 
 land. The Duke of Newcastle thus announces to Lord 
 Hardwicke his conference with the late envoy. 
 
 "October 1st, 1761. Thursday morning. 
 
 " I HAVE had a very long, dry, and fruitless conver- 
 sation with my friend Stanley, the whole tending to 
 war and not peace. Former facts abridged by him, 
 softened, and not quite verified, and supported; pre- 
 sent dispositions stated in a favourable light for the 
 views and measures of those who difier with us. 
 
 " I send your lordship, for your consideration, before 
 I see you, a note I took of Avhat passed with my Lord 
 Mansfield, relating to what we should do at our 
 meeting to-morrow."" 
 
 Holland. On his return from his French embassy, he was, at the 
 nomination of Choiseul, appointed minister of foreign affairs in 
 the place of Don Ricardo Wall. Grin-jaldi appears to have been a 
 man of very inferior capacity. Choiseul, who acquired a great 
 ascendancy over him, induced him to sacrifice the interests of Spain 
 to those of France. But for his mismanagement the Havannah 
 need not have been placed in jeopardy. The Duke of Bedford in 
 his correspondence speaks of Grimaldi's intrigues, and of his hostile 
 disposition towards England.
 
 17G1.] RESIGNATION OF PITT. 45 
 
 [The following note upon this letter is by the second 
 Lord llardvvicke.] 
 
 " After Mr. Pitt was out, Mr. Stanley did say clearly, 
 and to myself, that he thought his manner of negociat- 
 ing, spoilt the peace, and that France, though humbled 
 and weakened, was still a power which had an exist- 
 ence in the world. H." 
 
 The " meeting to-morrow," alluded to in the fore- 
 going letter, was summoned for the purpose of giving 
 a final answer to Mr. Pitfs proposition. With the 
 exception of the great Avar-minister, and his brother- 
 in-hiw. Lord Temple, the cabinet was opposed to an 
 immediate declaration of hostilities with Spain. Mr. 
 Pitt, on this decision of his colleagues, declared " this 
 to be the last time he should sit in that council. He 
 thanked the ministers of the late King for their sup- 
 port; said he was himself called to the ministry by 
 the voice of the people, to whom he considered himself 
 as accountable for his conduct, and that he would 
 no longer remain in a situation which made him re- 
 sponsible for measures he was no longer allowed to 
 guide."'"' On the 5th of October, accordingly, he re- 
 signed his office, and his example was followed two 
 days afterwards, by Lord Temple. 
 
 Mr. Pitfs secession, and his motives for it, appear 
 to have been foreseen by more than one person. " Your 
 lordship must remember," writes Bubb Dodington to 
 Lord Bute, " some months ago, I said I thought Mr. 
 
 * Annual Register, 1761, p. 43.
 
 46 RESIGNATION OF PITT. [l701. 
 
 Pitt would never make peace, because he could never 
 make such a peace, as he had taught the nation to 
 expect."* Soame Jenynsf makes a similar remark in 
 
 * Adolphus' History of England, App. vi. p. 481. 
 
 t Soame Jenyns, the poet, M.P. for Cambridge, a friend and neigh- 
 bour of Lord Hardvvicke, whose children he frequently made the 
 subjects of his muse ; hence Walpole calls him " the poet laureate of 
 the Yorkes." This agreeable writer was born in 1703. During Sir 
 Robert Walpole's administration he was appointed a Lord of Trade, 
 but having a great dislike to party distinctions, was allowed to hold 
 his appointment under every succeeding minister, until the Board 
 itself was abolished. His writings in prose and poetry spread over 
 almost the whole field of literature, comprising, amongst many other 
 topics, Essays on theology, metaphysics, politics, and dancing. In 
 private life, Jenyns was a man of much sweetness of temper. 
 He had a lively and pleasant turn of wit ; his conversation was 
 sparkling, "and," according to the Rev. Mr. Cole, "full of merry 
 conceits and agreeable drollery, which was heightened by his inarticu- 
 late manner of speaking through his bioken teeth." " He was," says 
 Richard Cumberland, " the man who bore his part in all societies, 
 with the most even temper and undisturbed hilarity, of all the good 
 companions I ever knew. He came into your house at the very 
 moment you had put upon your card ; he dressed himself, to do your 
 party honour, in all the colours of the jay; his lace, indeed, had long 
 since lost its lustre, but his coat had faithfully retained its cut ever 
 since the days when gentlemen wore embroidered figured velvets, 
 with short sleeves, boot cuffs, and buckram skirts. As Nature cast 
 him in the exact mould of an ill-made pair of stiff stays, he followed 
 her so close in the fashion of his coat, that it was doubted whether he 
 did not wear them ; because he had a protuberant wen just under his 
 pole, he wore a wig that did not cover above half his head. His eyes 
 were protruded like the eyes of the lobster, who wears them at the end 
 of his feelers ; and yet there was room between one of these and his 
 nose for another wen, that added nothing to his beauty. Yet I heard 
 this good man very innocently remark, when Gibbon published his 
 History, that he wondered anybody so ugly could write a book." — 
 Memoirs, 4to, 247-8.
 
 17(51. J ATTEMPT TO INJURE PITT'S CHARACTER. 47 
 
 the following extract from one of his letters to Lord 
 Royston : — 
 
 " I am not much surprised at the intended resigna- 
 tion, because I was always satisfied, that sooner or later, 
 it must happen. Your lordship must remember, that I 
 have often said Mr. P(itt) never would or could agree 
 to any peace, but that he must push things so despe- 
 rately, that no one could follow him, and then make 
 that an excuse for quitting, when he found it impossible 
 to go on ; every event since, has confirmed me in this 
 opinion, and I am certain that it is not in his power to 
 act now on any other plan." 
 
 When Mr. Pitt quitted the government, the Court 
 resolved he should leave his character behind him. 
 Unconnected by birth with any of the old Whig families, 
 the source of his power lay in the affections of the 
 people. His haughty bearing towards the late sove- 
 reign, had long excluded him from that place in the 
 administration, which in public opinion he was en- 
 titled to fill. This proscription had obtained for liim 
 a high reputation for independence, while his refusal 
 to appropriate, when paymaster of the forces, the emo- 
 luments of his office, had produced an opinion highly 
 favourable to his disinterestedness. To destroy his cha- 
 racter for these two qualities, the Court persuaded 
 him to accept the barony of Chatham for his wife Lady 
 Hester Pitt, and an annuity of three thousand pounds 
 a-year for three lives for himself. In the first instance, 
 he appears to have been duped by these insidious boons, 
 for, in his interview with the King, to give u}) the seals.
 
 48 ATTEMPT TO INJURE PITT'S CHARACTER. [l761. 
 
 he was so overcome by the apparent graciousness of 
 his reception, that he declared he did not come prepared 
 for such exceeding goodness, and burst into tears; and 
 in a letter to Lord Bute, in which he desires his lordship 
 " to lay him at the royal feet," he declares himself 
 " penetrated with the bounteous favour of a most benign 
 sovereign and master." But he cannot long have 
 doubted the design of the Court, for they inserted in 
 the same gazette, his resignation of the seals, and his 
 acceptance of the peerage and pension. Further to im- 
 pugn the aggressive policy on which he grounded his 
 resignation, they added an article from Spain, setting 
 forth the pacific intentions of that country. 
 
 The announcement was not without its effect at 
 the moment. " The city and the people," writes liigby, 
 on the 12th of October, " ai-e outrageous about Lady 
 Cheafem^ as they call her, and her husband's pension," 
 and in a postscript he mentions, that Mr. Pitt was to be 
 burned that night in great pomp in the city. 
 
 With a view to repel these attacks on his popularity, 
 Pitt wrote to his friend, Mr. Alderman Beckford, to 
 justify his conduct. The letter afterwards made its 
 appearance in the Public Ledger. In this document he 
 alleges the same reasons for his retirement that he had 
 assigned to his colleague, that " he would not remain 
 responsible for measures which he was no longer allowed 
 to guide."
 
 1701.] DR. BIRCH TO LOUD ROYSTON. 49 
 
 THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE TO THE EAllL OF HARDWICKE. 
 
 " Newcastle House, October 20th, 1761. 
 Tuesday, 7 o'clock. 
 
 '' I ACQUAINTED Lord Bute with my city news, that all 
 was fire and flame there; that Mr. Pitt's letter had 
 brought back all his old friends to him ; that there was 
 to be a meeting of the Common Council this day to 
 instruct his Majesty in the most violent manner to sup- 
 port war and warlike measures ; with some compliments 
 to Mr. Pitt. My Lord Bute seemed quite unconcerned, 
 and said bravely, that he did not trouble himself about 
 it, or inquire what Mr. Pitt did. I told his Lordship 
 that I knew, as I do, that an agent of Mr. Pitt's said, 
 ' there was no union at Court ; ' and Lord B. made me 
 no answer to that." 
 
 • 
 
 DR. BIRCH* TO VISCOUNT ROYSTON. 
 
 « Oct. 27th, 17G1. 
 
 " The St. James's Chronicle of this evening, will, in 
 all probability, furnish your Lordship with a copy of 
 
 * Thomas Birch was born in 1705. His parents were Quakers; 
 his father was a coffee-mill maker. The son, by unremitted applica- 
 tion, and amidst numerous difficulties and disadvantages, became 
 qualified to take orders, though he had not received an university 
 education. In 1732 he was recommended to Chancellor Hardwicke, 
 then attorney- general, to whom, and to whose son, the second earl, 
 he became indebted for his numerous church preferments. In 1752 
 he was elected one of the Secretaries of the Royal Society, and the 
 following year was created a doctor of divinity. Poor Birch used to 
 
 yOL. I. E
 
 50 DR. BIRCH [1761. 
 
 Mr. Pitt's letter to some eminent citizen, which appeared 
 this morning in the Public Ledger, and occasioned so 
 great a demand for that paper, that above three thousand 
 were sold before noon ; before which time the Gazetteer 
 was reprinted with that letter, which came out early 
 in the morning, wanting that very remarkable piece. 
 Bristow, the publisher of the Ledger, acknowledged to 
 me that he had seen the original, and that his copy was 
 given to the public with the writer's consent, but would 
 not inform me to whom it was addressed, whether Sir 
 James Hodges or Alderman Beckford,* though he in- 
 timated that my Lord Mayor had a copy of it, or another 
 
 pride himself on his riding. In 1766 he was killed by a fall from 
 his horse. Hudibras has spoken of 
 
 " An ancient sage philosopher 
 
 Who had read Alexander Ross over." 
 
 A reference to " Watts' Bibliotheca Brltannica " will show that 
 Birch's works are nearly as voluminous as those of Ross. His first 
 great work was a General Dictionary, historical and critical, including 
 a translation of Bayle, with several thousand new lives. He was 
 the author of twelve other publications, chiefly historical or biogra- 
 phical ; and was an extensive contributor to many other works. Dr. 
 Heathcote, a brother author, and fellow member of a club of literati, 
 who met once a week to talk learnedly for three or four hours, says 
 " Birch was an honest, humane man, warm and zealous in his attach- 
 ments to persons and principles, but of universal benevolence; that 
 he was cheerful, lively, and spirited, an early riser, and a man of 
 great general knowledge. He afforded much literary information to 
 Johnson, who made him the subject of a Greek epigram." " Tom 
 Birch," said the great lexicographer, " is as brisk as a bee in con- 
 versation, but no sooner does he take a pen in his hand, than it 
 becomes like a torpedo to him, and benumbs all his faculties." 
 * William Beckford, M.P. for London, of whom more hereafter.
 
 17G1.] TO LORD ROYSTON. 51 
 
 letter to the same purpose sent to him. Your l-ordsliip 
 needs no criticism upon the inaccuracy of the compo- 
 sition,* nor shall I animadvert upon his avowal that 
 his inducement to quit his post was because he was no 
 longer allowed to quide the public measures. His owning 
 the acceptance of the public marks of his Majesty's 
 favour will overset the representation made by Mr. 
 Beckford, who employed his agents to circulate on Thurs- 
 day, that though Mr. Pitt had received such offers from 
 Lord Bute, he had not yet accepted them. Mr. Dingley,t 
 the Russian merchant, was in particular authorised by 
 Mr. Beckford to declare this; and an attempt was made 
 under the colour of such an assertion, to form a cabal in 
 the city in his favour. On Thursday it was asserted 
 that Mr. Pitt had written to his friend, Sir James 
 
 * Wilkes used to say that Chatham was the best orator, and the 
 worst letter-writer of the age. 
 
 t Charles Dingley, the projector and proprietor of some saw-mills at 
 Limehouse, was a man of much eccentricity. He obtained consider- 
 able notoriety in 1769, by standing in opposition to Wilkes and not 
 obtaining a single vote. " The hero of the meeting," writes Lord 
 Temple, " Master Dingley, struck Wilkes's attorney, who knocked 
 him down in return." His own version of the encounter is contained 
 in a letter to Lady Chatham : — " In 1 745 I entered myself a com- 
 mon soldier in the foot-guards, and the same spirit of loyalty, and the 
 desire to do some noble act, induced me to offer my services to snatch 
 and destroy the danger and confusion, by representing the County of 
 Middlesex, I got into a scuffle. By a blow I gave Wilkes's attorney, 
 Reynolds, I got such a hurt from his teeth, as to make my hand very 
 lame and worthless." Junius says that " the miserable Dingley was 
 induced to oppose Wilkes by the Duke of Grafton, and that he died 
 of a broken heart in consequence of having been so contemptuously 
 treated." 
 
 E ^
 
 52 DUKE OF NEWCASTLE [l761. 
 
 Hodges, to contradict the Gazette account from Madrid, 
 of Saturday last, with regard to the pacific disposition 
 of Spain; and yesterday there were alarming appear- 
 ances of a new popular ferment, tending to restore him 
 once more to power." 
 
 The " meeting of the Common Council," to which 
 the Duke of Newcastle alludes,'" agreed upon a repre- 
 sentation to the four representatives of the City, urging 
 them " to oppose all attempts for giving up such places 
 as may tend to lessen our present security, or by re- 
 storing the naval power of France, render us subject 
 to fresh hostilities from that natural enemy;" and in 
 another part alludes to the nation's ability still to carry 
 on, and vigorously prosecute the present just and neces- 
 sary war.f 
 
 THE DURE OF NEWCASTLE TO THE EARL OF HARDWICKE. 
 
 " Claremont, Oct. 18, I 761. 
 " Mr. Pitt's almost avowed opposition opens a new 
 scene, and his directing that opposition to the applica- 
 tion of the supplies, shows what I always foresaw, that 
 all his malice would be directed against the old Admi- 
 nistration^ notwithstanding his compliments at Council. 
 He will think by that to be less offensive to the King 
 by sparing his Minister and favourite, and may be 
 glad not to be desperate with either. He will also 
 
 * See ante, page 49, line 4. 
 
 t Annual Register for 1761, p. [301.]
 
 1761.] TO LORD IIARDWICKE. 53 
 
 Itiy the enormous expenses occasioned singly by his 
 own measures, on the corrupt, ignorant, or loose ad- 
 ministration of the Treasury, which ought to have pre- 
 vented it. I just touched yesterday upon Mr. Pitt's 
 most astonisJmig letter ; nothing can be more offensive 
 to a King, more insolent in itself, more mischievous 
 to Council, or show more marks of a hurt disappointed 
 heart. But it carries with it also, certain proofs of 
 hatred, revenge, and opposition. ' Against whom ? the 
 principal object ought to be the principal actor in it. 
 But, in fact, he was the sole author of it. 
 
 ' Resolved to ruin or to rule the state.'"* 
 
 * Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel, Part I. v. 1 74.
 
 54 EAUL 01' EUREMONT [l7<>l. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 EARL OF EGREMONT APrOINTED PITT's SUCCESSOR. DUKE OF NEW- 
 CASTLE TO LORD HARD\V:iCKE. THREATENED RUPTURE WITH SPAIN. 
 
 LORD ROYSTON TO MR. YORKE. WANT OF UNION AT COURT. 
 
 SUMMONING A NEW PARLIAMENT. — RIVAL LISTS. CHARACTERS OF 
 
 LORD TEMPLE AND GEORGE GRENVILLE. — CHOICE OF A SPEAKER. 
 
 THE king's visit TO THE CITY. — PITT's TREATMENT ON THAT OCCA- 
 SION. MR. MILBANKE TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. CHARACTER OF 
 
 BARRE. MR. MILBANKE TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. — EFFECTS OF THE 
 
 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE, 
 
 Newcastle had hoped that the retirement of his 
 great rival and colleague would lead to the restoration 
 of his own political pre-eminence. " I never," says Sir 
 George Colebrooke,* "saw the Duke in higher spirits 
 than after Mr. Pitt, thwarted by the Cabinet in his pro- 
 posal of declaring war against Spain, had given notice 
 of resignation ; " but Lord Talbot, who as " a King's 
 friend," probably knew what was likely to happen, ad- 
 vised his Grace "not to die for joy on the Monday, nor 
 for fear on the Tuesday." f The poor Duke was not left 
 long in doubt, for immediately upon the resignation. Lord 
 Bute assumed the entire management of public affairs. 
 
 * Manuscript Memoir, quoted by Sir Denis Le Marcliant in 
 Walpole's Memoirs of George tlie Third, 
 t Walpole.
 
 17G1.] APPOINTED PITT's SUCCESSOR. 55 
 
 The first act of the favourite was to bestow the 
 vacant Seals on Charles Wyndhani, Earl of Egremont, 
 son of Sir William Wyndhain, the celebrated Tory leader 
 in the two preceding reigns. Walpole, who speaks 
 disparagingly of him, admits that he had "a great 
 deal of humour." He was a thoroughly well-bred man, 
 but of a haughty, overbearing disposition. Junius says 
 " that, notwithstanding his pride and Tory principles, 
 he had some English stuff about him." The principal 
 act of his short ministry, was his answer to the Spanish 
 memorial, which did him much credit. Like his father, 
 he died suddenly at the age of fifty-two. "If," says 
 Bishop Newton, " he had entered earlier into business, 
 he might have made as considerable a figure as his 
 father. He had seldom occasion to speak in parlia- 
 ment, but whenever he did speak, it was with great 
 clearness, force, and energy, and he was thought very 
 much to resemble his father in manner as well as 
 good matter, having a little catch and impediment in 
 his voice as Sir William Wyndham."* 
 
 It is difficult to form a correct opinion of the first 
 official act of the new secretary ; for although he de- 
 clared that act to be his own, yet it is not quite clear 
 from the letter that follows whether the document to 
 which he was directed to put his name, expressed his 
 own opinions, or whether, in the spirit of the new 
 regime^ he was the mere registrar of a royal edict. 
 
 * Bishop Newton's Life and Anecdotes, folio edition, p. 69-70.
 
 56 DUKE OF NEWCASTLE TO LORD IIAUDWICKE. [ 17(51. 
 
 THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE TO THE EARL OF HAEDWICRE. 
 
 " October 20th, 1761. 
 
 " Lord Bute said, the King has given orders to my 
 Lord Egremont to prepare a letter for my Lord Bristol,* 
 expressing his Majesty's desire to correspond with their 
 {the Spaniards) assurance to heal and soften all the 
 depending disputes amicably with each other, '' pro- 
 vided. tJieij made it appear to the Kin(j that there was 
 nothing offensive contained in the last treaty with Parish 
 My Lord Bute said, ' this has been agreed at St. 
 
 * George William, second Earl of Bristol, eldest of the three sons 
 of the celebrated Lord Hervey, and of the equally celebrated " Mary 
 Lepel," a lady whose wit, beauty, and vivacity, inspired the pens of 
 Pope, Chesterfield, Pulteney, and Voltaire, of whom, the last-named 
 addressed her in English verse. Lord Bristol was at this time 
 ambassador at the Court of Spain. Throughout his difficult mission 
 he appears to have conducted himself with singular ability and 
 temper. Walpole says he was " a very Spaniard in formality and 
 pride." From other accounts he appears to have inherited that 
 degree of effeminacy in person, manners, and dress, that led Pope to 
 dub his father " Lord Fanny." But this exterior by no means indi- 
 cated Lord Bristol's real character. He was a man of great personal 
 bravery. Sailing once in his brother Augustus Hervey's ship during 
 the Seven Years' war, the vessel was menaced with an attack from a 
 French ship of greatly superior force. In spite of the entreaties of his 
 brother, Bristol insisted upon remaining on deck, sword in hand, 
 saj'ing that as he had the honour to represent a Sovereign distin- 
 guished for personal courage, he ought to behave as his master would 
 have done on a like occasion. When Bristol was ordered to quit 
 Spain, in every Spanish village that he passed, he was pursued with 
 huzzas and acclamations deprecating the war. — (European Magazine, 
 xxix. 2^9.) Lord Bristol died in 1775. Both his brothers succeeded 
 in turn to the earldom.
 
 17(U.] THREATENED RUPTURE WITH SPAIN. 57 
 
 James's, I suppose, between my Lord Egremont and 
 himself; for, notwithstanding the little council of us 
 four, I know nothing of the matter' 
 
 " I found, by his brother,* that strong measures and 
 strong declarations are to do everything to prevent 
 the junction of France and Spain. Sure, we have 
 tried these measures long enough." 
 
 The official despatch here ordered to be prepared, 
 whether emanating from the King himself, or the joint 
 production of the conciliabulum^ had very important 
 results. The obvious policy of the Court was to pre- 
 serve peace with Spain, for thus alone could Ministers 
 hope to justify their rejection of Pitt's aggressive policy. 
 The object of the letter, therefore, was evidently to 
 " heal and soften all the depending disputes," while 
 the " strong declarations " it contained were to prove 
 to the Court of Madrid that the British Government 
 had lost none of its vigour and efficacy by the late 
 change of hands. The means did not answer the end. 
 
 The PROVISO mentioned in the Duke of Newcastle's 
 letter was more than Castilian pride could endure. 
 Don Ricardo Wall, the Spanish Minister, who had 
 hitherto proved himself a warm friend to England, 
 upon receiving Lord Egremont's communication, de- 
 clared with much vehemence of manner that he him- 
 self would be the man to advise the King of Spain, 
 since his dominions were to be overwhelmed, at least 
 to liave them seized with arms in his subjects' hands, 
 
 * The Hon. James Stuart JMackenzie, Lord Bute's only brother.
 
 58 LORD ROYSTON [l7()l. 
 
 and not to continue the passive victim he had hitherto 
 appeared in the eyes of the world. Lord Bristol, the 
 British Ambassador, was at the same time informed 
 that no answer would be given, and that his Excel- 
 lency might retire at the time and in the manner 
 most convenient to himself. 
 
 VISCOUNT ROYSTON TO THE HONOURABLE CHARLES YORKE. 
 
 " Dear Brother, " St. James's Square, Dec. 27, 176L 
 
 " This affair of Spain gives me a good deal of con- 
 cern, and the more, as I cannot approve the conduct of 
 our friends in it. I think they have been weakly and 
 timidly submitting to others, whom they ought to have 
 led. They have been playing Mr. Pitt's game in the 
 nation, and that of France at the Court of Madrid. If 
 ever there was a quarrel founded on punctilio and a 
 point of good breeding^ this seems to be the instance; 
 and then it becomes a little serious to engage two 
 nations in blood and enmity, on no stronger provoca- 
 tion. Lord Bristol has executed the King's orders in 
 a masterly manner, as appears by the copy of the note 
 he left in Wall's closet, and which I doubt not the 
 Duke of Newcastle will show you. Fuentes'"" will 
 
 * Count de Fuentes, Spanish Ambassador at the Court of St. 
 James's. " A dull, cold man," according to Walpole, " and wedded 
 to all the forms of his religion." From his public despatches, from 
 his private letters in the Chatham Correspondence, and from Coxe's 
 account of him in his Memoirs of the Kings of Spain, he appears to 
 have been a skilful diplomatist. " M. de Fuentes," writes Walpole 
 
 to Lord Strafford, " is a halfpenny print of Lord H . His wife 
 
 homely, but seems good-natured and civil. The son does not dege-
 
 1701.] TO MR. YORKE. 59 
 
 impute to his Lordship's offensive language the rough 
 answer of his Court, and will declare that the treaty 
 between France and Spain is a mere family compact, 
 on which the latter have given their guarantee to the 
 former^ with a view to what they, the French, shall 
 lose in the course of this war. What are we then going 
 to quarrel about? I must freely own, I think our Chief 
 has been too passive in this affair. I mean, when the 
 draught of Lord Egremont's letter was considered in 
 Council, and that he should have obliged them to 
 weigh the consequences of extending and prolonging 
 (I wish I may not add perpetuating) the war, a little 
 more coolly and deliberately. Though Mr. Pitt would 
 not submit to have his draught cobbled,* the Earl of 
 Egremont surely had no such privilege to plead; and 
 when his Lordship said that Jds head was concerned in 
 writing a proper letter to Spain on this occasion, I wish 
 he had been told that every Minister at the Board was 
 equally responsible to his country for the advice he 
 gave, and for the manner in which that advice was 
 directed to be carried into execution. 
 
 " Above all, it was most extraordinary, in those who 
 know Lord Bristol's connections with Mr. Pitt, to 
 entrust him with the execution of such orders, and 
 
 nerate from such high-born ugliness ; the daughter-in-law was sick, 
 and they say is not ugly, and has as good a set of teeth as one can 
 have when one has but two, and those black. They seem to have no 
 curiosity, sit where they are placed, and ask no questions about so 
 strange a country. Indeed, the Ambassadress could see nothing; lor 
 Dodington stood before, the vvhulc time, sweating Spanish at her." 
 * Sec ante, page 27, line 22.
 
 60 WANT OF UNION AT COURT. [l76l. 
 
 not lay him under all the guards and restrictions in 
 the manner which words can convey. The first person 
 who gave me any intimation of the style of the despatch 
 to Madrid, and the opposition which Lord Eg(reraont) 
 had given to the softening it, was Mr. Jones,* about 
 three weeks ago; and I can safely declare, that I then 
 said to him everything that I now say, after the event. 
 This quarrel with Spain opens so wide a field of con- 
 troversy — to many old claims, new acquisitions, schemes 
 of private gain and public ambition, together with a 
 certain increase of expense in every quarter where an 
 attack is to be made or apprehended — that I own I see 
 no end of the violent situation we are in, and which 
 I doubt will continue till public distress or absolute 
 inability compels us to wind up, not as we might, but 
 as we may — ' liberavi animam meayn.^ 
 
 " Yours affectionately, " H." 
 
 In this same letter of Lord Egremont, which was 
 afterwards submitted to Parliament, the ambassador at 
 the Court of Spain was informed that " the most per- 
 fect harmony and mutual confidence now reign in his 
 Majesty's Councils." This was evidently to do away 
 with the report in the city that there was " no union 
 at Court." The concluding paragraph in the Duke of 
 Newcastle's letter of the 20th, already quoted, will 
 show how far the intimation was founded in fact. 
 
 * Hugh Valence Jones, first cousin of Lord Royston, successively 
 Secretary to the Duke of Newcastle, Member for Dover, and a Com- 
 missioner of Revenue in Ireland.
 
 1701. J SUMMONING A NEW PARLIAMENT. 61 
 
 " As for the matter (he, Mr. Stuart Mackenzie, said) 
 of there being no union amongst us, that was the lie 
 of the day, and would fall in twenty-four hours. I 
 wish there were not so good grounds for the report." 
 
 The summoning of a new Parliament afforded the 
 King an opportunity of violating the spirit of the Con- 
 stitution without openly departing from the letter. The 
 time was not wholly unfavourable for such attempts. 
 The country had lost its early zeal for the principles i 
 of the Whigs. The Whigs were not cordially united I 
 among themselves. The Tory party had begun to 
 resume their ascendancy in the counties, even some 
 of the old Jacobites had re-entered the precincts of the 
 court. The issue of writs was delayed purposely, in 
 order that Lord Bute might have the more time to 
 mature his plans, and secure seats for the personal 
 adherents of the Crown. From the following extracts 
 it would appear that his Majesty, if he did not claim, 
 at least appropriated to himself, as part of his personal 
 prerogative, a share in the nomination to the govern- 
 ment boroughs, and that both his ostensible minister, 
 and his real adviser, each produced rival lists of his 
 own friends and supporters. A century and a half had 
 elapsed since similar artifices had been resorted to by 
 the family, whose posterity the House of Hanover now 
 excluded from the British throne. It appeared a bad 
 omen, for the new reign to commence with a policy, 
 the results of which had formerly overturned the 
 monarchy. But neither the King nor his coterie were 
 capable of benefiting by the lessons of history.
 
 G2 RIVAL LISTS. I 1701 
 
 TOE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE TO THE EARL OF IIARDWIOKE. 
 
 "January 19th, 17G1. 
 
 " I AM to be with my Lord Bute to-morrow at St. 
 James's whilst tlie King is at the House. I told his 
 Lordship that I should come to talk to him about the 
 Parliament, and that I had but just got my papers 
 and lists. He said it was high time, and I think 
 (though in very good humour) talked in such a man- 
 ner, that I expect more lists from him than I shall 
 carry to him. He said. Lord Falmouth had offered 
 the King three members, but he did not tell me the 
 King's answer." 
 
 This liberal offer came from one of the most unblush- 
 ing borough-mongers of the day. Hugh Boscawen, 
 second Viscount Falmouth. In effrontery of solicitation 
 he was equalled by Bubb Dodington alone, and he 
 lacked the mother-wit which made that effrontery en- 
 durable. In George the Second's reign, he told Pitt, 
 at that time minister, that if he had not the garter, 
 which was then vacant, his five members should vote 
 against the government. " As long," replied Pitt, " as 
 I remain in the Cabinet, your Lordship shall not re- 
 ceive that distinction:" then turning to some by- 
 standers, he added, " Optat ephippia Bos." — " Who 
 calls me Bosf^' inquired Falmouth. — "The remark," 
 replied Pitt, " is not mine, but Horace's." — " If Horace
 
 17G1.] RIVAL LISTS. 63 
 
 Walpole," exclaimed his Lordship, " has taken this 
 liberty with my name I shall resent it." * 
 
 TUE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE TO THE EARL OF IIARDWICKE. 
 
 " January 29th, 17G1. 
 " I HAVE heard nothing bnt civil messages from Lord 
 Bute. Lord Anson told me yesterday, he complained 
 of having heard nothing from me about the election. 
 You know how I have been put off from time to time, 
 and I don't see that his Lordship is yet disposed to 
 fix a certain day. Lord Anson also said that Lord B. 
 told him, the King would have several members to put 
 in. His Majesty must find places for them ! " 
 
 FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME. 
 
 " Newcastle House, Monday, 5 o'clock. 
 " I HAVE received the enclosed list from Mr. Legge. 
 I beg you would communicate it to the Duke of Devon- 
 shire, and my Lord Kinnoul, who, I hope, have told 
 you what intelligence I had relating to Mr. Fox and his 
 list. I see Legge proposes to make a complete list at 
 present, and to alter it when he shall see the Court 
 list. I am promised that, as soon as it is settled ; but 
 Mr. Fox said this day, that they were to meet about it. 
 I doubt whether Ave shall have time to let our friends 
 know what to do." 
 
 Mr. Legge, alluded to in the foregoing letter, was at 
 
 " Wraxall.
 
 64 RIVAL LISTS. [1761. 
 
 this time Chancellor of the Exchequer, and member 
 for Hampshire, He had, in 1759, ofiended George the 
 Third, then Prince of Wales, by declining to withdraw 
 his pretensions to the county representation, in favour 
 of Mr., afterwards Sir Simeon, Stuart, a cousin of 
 Lord Bute's. The following letter will show that this 
 refusal was neither forgiven nor forgotten. 
 
 THE DUKE or NEWCASTLE TO THE xMARQUIS OF ROCKING- 
 HAM. 
 
 " My Lord Anson has received orders from the King 
 himself, to declare to the Docks,* that they may vote 
 for whom they please in the Hampshire election, even 
 though the Chancellor of the Exchequer is a candidate." 
 
 THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE TO THE EARL OF HARDWICKE. 
 
 " I WILL go through the elections as well as I can, and 
 endeavour to see what they (the Court) really intend. 
 I think it is too late for them to do any mischief. 
 They may be disagreeable, and defeat some of our 
 friends, and act directly contrary to what they pro- 
 mised; but they can't now alter the tone and com- 
 plexion of the new parliament. That is all settled, and 
 so far, my staying in to this time has been of use." 
 
 On the above letter, the second Lord Hardwicke has 
 made the following remark: — • 
 " Notwithstanding the choice of the parliament, which 
 
 * Of Portsmouth.
 
 1761.] CHARACTER OF LORD TEMPLE. G5 
 
 the Duke of Newcastle piques himself upon, they forsook 
 him for Lord Bute, when his standard was set up." 
 
 No two monarchs were probably ever more pestered 
 by their advisers, than George the Second and his suc- 
 cessor, by Lord Temple and George Grenville. Nor 
 were their Majesties the only victims. There was 
 scarcely a contemporary statesman who had not been 
 bullied or bored by this ruthless pair of brothers. 
 Both, indeed, were tormentors of the first order. Yet 
 their connections rendered them indispensable; their 
 talents, their knowledge of the world and of parlia- 
 mentary forms, made them serviceable ; and their pro- 
 fession of Whig principles gave them a kind of repu- 
 tation for liberal sentiments. ^ 
 
 Richard, Earl Temple^ the elder brother, had good I 
 business-habits, and much industry, and was by no 
 means an inefficient speaker. His huge ungainly figure 
 procured for him the nickname of " Squire Gawky." 
 The qualities of his mind were indeed as loosely put 
 together as his limbs. With much ambition, his own 
 wayward caprice, or masterless pride, constantly marred 
 his plans of self-aggrandisement. He was frequently 
 asking favours of George the Second. That monarch 
 accounted himself at least a Turenne in war; yet his 
 Privy Seal gracefully insinuated that his Majesty had 
 no more spirit than Admiral Byng, whose death-warrant 
 (unjustly however) he had just signed. 
 
 One of Temple's grand schemes was to establish a 
 triumvirate government, to be composed of himself, his 
 "voTTir^ '" ^"""^ '^ "^ '"" -"«:«.. , _. . ,^.
 
 G6 CHARACTERS OF [l7Gl. 
 
 brother George, and his brother-in-law, Pitt, — three'men 
 whose opinions were as opposite as the antipodes, and who 
 were almost always at personal variance with each other. 
 Temple appears to have had no fixed princij^les of 
 action. He adopted the cause of prerogative against 
 the Americans, and the side of Wilkes against the 
 l\ prerogative. Mischief appears to have been the main 
 \[ incentive of his actions ; nevertheless, he preferred being 
 a backer rather than a principal. He was Wilkes's 
 prime instigator in his wicked pranks against the 
 King and the Court. He Avas likewise Chatham's evil 
 genius; and occasionally led his brother-in-law to com- 
 mit imprudences into which a school-boy would scarcely 
 have fallen. He was indeed the cause of half the errors 
 and inconsistencies committed by that statesman. The 
 result of his political life was, that Lord Temple, after 
 thirty years' factious meddling in public affairs, died, dis- 
 trusted and avoided by the associates of his earlier days, 
 ^j George Grenville was greatly superior to his brother 
 in talents. Pitt considered him to be the best parlia- 
 ment man in the House. Formal, punctual, and exact, 
 he undoubtedly was. But his pride and pertinacity 
 were as obstructive, as his regularity was conducive, to 
 progress in affairs. Ingratitude was one of his besetting 
 sins. Whatever may have been Lord Bute's demerits, 
 he was at least Grenville's benefactor. Whatever may 
 have been Pitt's profusion in war, Grenville long supported 
 his martial measures. Yet he was among the first to turn 
 against Bute, and to upbraid Pitt for his extravagance. 
 Unlike as were the brothers in personal appearance,
 
 17G1.] LORD TEMPLE AND GEORGE GRENVILLE. G7 
 
 there was much similarity in the conformation of their 
 minds. Their common characteristics were pride, want 
 of tact, and jealousy of all around them. Each lost 
 office by the violence of his temper, and the haugh- 
 tiness of each rendered a return to power impractica- 
 ble. Each of them was revengeful ; each vented his feel- 
 ings in pamphlets. Each possessed a stream of words, 
 which, in all places, and on all occasions, flowed from 
 him "in omne volubilis asvum."* Like Temple, too, 
 George Grenville regarded the King as the proper butt 
 of his tedious harangues, and at times of his angry 
 invective. " When he has wearied me for two hours," 
 said George the Third, exhausted after one of these 
 inflictions, "he looks at his watch to see if he may 
 not tire me for an houi;,more." 
 
 It was this last-named brother whom Lord Bute, at 
 the commencement of 1761, succeeded in gaining over to 
 the Court, haying been, up to this period, the constant 
 supporter of his brother-in-law, Mr. Pitt. " Avarice," 
 says Walpole, " which he (Grenville) possessed in no 
 less a proportion than his other passions, concurred to 
 lead him from a master who browbeat and treated 
 him superciliously, to worship the rising sun. Lord 
 Bute was in want of tools, and it was a double prize 
 to acquire them from his rival's shop." 
 
 * Grenville was one evening at a concert. In the midst of a 
 " bravura " he addressed his neighbour in his usual loud monotonous 
 voice on the subject of some grand fiscal scheme. This auditor sought 
 a pretext to shift his place. Whereupon the financier, possessing him- 
 self of pen, ink, and paper, committed his thoughts to writing, making 
 the pianoforte, at which the singer presided, serve for a table. 
 
 F 2 
 
 /
 
 08 CHOICE OF A SPEAKER. [l761. 
 
 In the early part of the year, Mr. Grenville had 
 been admitted into the Cabinet; but on Pitt's resigna- 
 tion of the seals, he was appointed ministerial leader 
 of the House of Commons. 
 
 A meeting was held at the Cockpit, the night 
 before Parliament assembled, for the purpose of hearing 
 the King's speech read, and agreeing upon the choice of 
 a Speaker. Since the days of Queen Anne, the Whigs 
 only had attended on such occasions ; but now that the 
 friends of the Government and the friends of the King 
 did not mean the same persons, the Tories uninvited made 
 a strong muster of their forces. On this party, as on 
 the sleeping courtiers in the fairy tale, time had wrought 
 no change of sentiment or opinion. The crown, not 
 the wearer of it, was the object of their idolatry. Cast- 
 ing aside as untenable their favorite dogma of indefea- 
 sible hereditary right, they complacently transferred 
 their allegiance from a Stuart to a Guelph, — from a 
 dejiire to a de facto King, 
 
 EDWIN LASCELLES,* ESQ., M.P., TO THE MARQUIS OF 
 
 ROCKINGHAM. 
 
 "'Pall Mall, Star and Garter, Nov. 2, 1761. 
 " After a very pleasant journey, we arrived in town 
 
 * Edwin Lascelles, Esq., Member for Yorkshire, was elevated to 
 the peerage in 1790, by the title of Lord Harewood, of Harewood 
 Castle. Dying without issue in 1795, the barony became extinct, 
 but his estates passed to his heir-at-law, Edward Lascelles, created 
 successively Baron Harewood, Viscount Lascelles, Earl of Harewood.
 
 170 l.J CHOICE OF A SPEAKER. (59 
 
 this afternoon; I called upon Sir George's* at eight 
 o'clock, to go to the Cockpit, where we found such a 
 crowd, of all complexions, especially of the old Tories, 
 that with much difficulty we got up stairs. I made my 
 way into the room, and got up to the table where 
 G. G.f was placed at the head of it, and then re- 
 commending Sir J. Gust for Speaker, which everybody 
 seemed to approve. Sir John replied in the episcopal 
 style, and thus it ended. Half of those who were 
 present, I am sure never saw that room before — 
 Shuttleworth,J for one; he is coming to sup with 
 
 us." 
 
 "■ Sir John Gust is Speaker," writes Walpole, " and, 
 bating his nose, the chair seems to be Avell filled." § The 
 new Speaker was selected for the post by Lord Bute, 
 on account of his Tory politics. He was a country 
 gentleman, of good family and large estates, of an 
 amiable disposition and obliging manners. He was 
 well acquainted with the usages of Parliament, but 
 
 * Not Mr. Lascelles' colleague Sir George Savile, who was unable 
 to attend the meeting, but Sir George Armytage, Member for York. 
 The Armytages are a very ancient Yorkshire family. The present 
 Sir George is the great grandson of the baronet alluded to in Mr, 
 Lascelles' letter. 
 
 f George Grenville. 
 
 :j: James Shuttleworth, Member for Lancashire, a Tory follower of 
 Lord Bute. His great grandaughter, the heiress of Ganthype, mar- 
 ried Mr.Kaye, the Commissioner of Education, now Sir James Phillips 
 Kaye Shuttleworth, Bart. 
 
 § The caricatures of the day point out the deficiency of the 
 feature here alluded to.
 
 70 THE KING'S VISIT TO THE CITY. [l76l. 
 
 was deficient in the energy necessary to restrain the 
 turbulence of an unreformed Parliament. The following 
 day he continued what Mr. Lascelles terms " the episco- 
 pal style," refusing to sit down in the chair till he was 
 forced into it by the douce violence of his proposer and 
 seconder. 
 
 On the 9th of November, George the Third, who had 
 been married only two months, went in state with his 
 youthful Queen, to dine with the Lord Mayor. It was 
 their Majesties' first visit to the city. Mr. Pitt, yield- 
 ing to Lord Temple's persuasions, and as he afterwards 
 declared, " against his better judgment," * went with 
 him in his carriage, and joined the procession. The 
 result of this procedure might partly have been an- 
 ticipated. The regal bride and bridegroom were re- 
 ceived by the people with indifierence, and Pitt's late 
 colleague, with cries of "No Newcastle salmon."' As 
 for Lord Bute, he was assailed everywhere with hisses 
 and execrations, and would probably have been torn 
 in pieces by the mob, but for the interference of a band 
 of butchers and prize-fighters, whom he had hired as 
 a body-guard. All the enthusiasm of the populace 
 was centred in Mr. Pitt, who was "honoured with the 
 most hearty acclamations of people of all ranks," f and so 
 great was the feeling in his fiivour, that the mob clung 
 about every part of the vehicle, hung upon the wheels, 
 hugged his footman, and even kissed his horses. | 
 
 Mr. Pitfs "joining himself to a pomp dedicated to a 
 
 * Chatham Correspondence, ii. 165. t Gentleman's Magazine. 
 J Annual Register, 17C1, p. 2ii7.
 
 1761. J PITT'S TREATMENT ON THAT OCCASION. 71 
 
 Court which he had just quitted was," as Walpole 
 observes, " not decent." The effect of his conduct upon 
 the King is alluded to in a letter from the Duke of 
 Newcastle to Lord Hardwicke, written a few days after 
 the banquet, in which he speaks of his Majesty's dis- 
 pleasure with ]\Ir. Pitt, for " his abominable conduct on 
 my Lord Mayor's day." The day of retaliation was at 
 hand. On the 9th of December, the King's Ministers 
 were to move the renewal of the treaties with Prussia, 
 and on the same day, the King's friends were to propose 
 as an amendment, the recall of the troops from Ger- 
 many. " A knot of chicken orators," were to be let loose 
 on the ex-Secretary, to impugn his favourite war policy, 
 and to be as personally offensive to himself, as the forms 
 of the House would allow. Some idea of the interest 
 anticipated from this debate may be gathered from the 
 fact, that the house was so crowded with ladies, that 
 it became necessary afterwards, to enforce the stand- 
 ing orders against the admission of strangers. " The 
 House," writes Lord Eoyston to Lord Hardwicke, " was 
 hot, and crowded as full of ladies, as the House of Lords 
 when the King goes to make a speech. The Members 
 were standing above half-way up the floor." 
 
 JOHN MILBANKE,"' ESQ., TO THE MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHAM. 
 
 "Dec. 9, 1761. 
 " The grand debate on the troops in Germany has 
 been deferred a week, on account of Charles Bunbury, 
 
 * Mr. Milbanke married the sister of Lord Rockingham. In 1766 
 he was appointed Commissioner of the Revenue in Ireland,
 
 72 MR. MILBANK.E [l761. 
 
 a son of Sir William's, just imported from Florence, 
 a pretty man, a beau, and very fond of his figure,* who 
 is to handle that slight and easy question of con- 
 tinental measures, the Russian Treaty, &c. ; to move to 
 have our troops immediately recalled. Mr. Dempster,! 
 a Scotchman, lately started up, of a promising genius, 
 and Mr. Glover, J are his seconds. I am told Mr. 
 Bunbury is under the banners of Mr. Fox. Whether 
 he means to patronize these popular points, and gain 
 a little credit, or means it in enmity to Mr. P , 
 
 * Thomas Charles Bunbury, of Mildenhall, M.P. for Suffolk, for 
 
 which county he sat forty-three years. " Young Bunbury," writes 
 
 Walpole to Sir H. Mann, "whom I sent to you, and you have lately 
 
 sent us back, is enrolled in a club of chicken orators." In 1764, Mr. 
 
 Bunbury succeeded his father in the baronetcy. Sir Charles was 
 
 better known at Newmarket than St. Stephens, and was long the 
 
 " father of the turf" His brother was the celebrated caricaturist. 
 
 In 176^, he became the husband of the beautiful Lady Sarah Lennox, 
 
 whom it is supposed George the Third would have made his Queen, 
 
 if he had not been prevented by the Princess Dowager. After the 
 
 dissolution of this marriage with Bunbury in 1776, Lady Sarah took 
 
 for her second husband the Hon. George Napier, and by him, amongst 
 
 other children, had Charles, the late gallant Commander-in-Chief in 
 
 India. Lady Sarah was grandaughter of Charles first Duke of 
 
 Richmond, the illegitimate son of Charles the Second, by Louisa de 
 
 la Querouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth. Thus then there was till 
 
 very lately in the active service of his country, an officer who is only 
 
 fourth in descent from the " Merry Monarch." 
 
 •|- George Dempster, Member for Forfarshire. 
 
 •J: Richard, or as he was familiarly called from his poem, " Leo- 
 nidas" Glover, had received his political education in Leicester 
 House. He at this time sat for Weymouth, and was one of the 
 Members of whom Bubb Dodington made a present to the King. 
 At the age of sixteen he wrote a much-admired poem in honour of 
 Sir Isaac Newton, and later in life the more celebrated political ballad
 
 1761.] TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. 73 
 
 (who is with the Ministry on this question), I know not. 
 I shall not close my letter till I try to glean something 
 from the debate of the day." 
 
 '* Dec. 10th 1761. 
 " As the foregoing part of my letter was the opinion 
 of the day, I let it stand, and now present you with 
 what I can collect from hearsay. After C. Town- 
 shend* had opened his military Budget very ably, and 
 declared the necessity of continuing the troops in Ger- 
 
 of "Hosier's Ghost." His other poems were the "Athenaid" and 
 " Boadicea." His last political act was to support the claims of the 
 West India planters. " In his person and habits he was a finished 
 gentleman of the old school, slow and precise in his manner, grave 
 and serious in his deportment, and always in the highest degree 
 decorous. Before the year 1776, he wore a bag, his wig very accu- 
 rately dressed^ and a small cocked hat under his arm. In this 
 costume he constantly walked from his house in St. James's Street, 
 Westminster, into the city." This minute description of his dress 
 was intended to identify him as the author of Junius, the " tall gen- 
 tleman" who was seen to throw a letter of Junius' in Mr. Woodfall's 
 printing office in Ivy Lane. 
 
 * The Right Hon. Charles Townshend. Burke's character of this 
 "splendid orb" is too well known to be repeated here. Vanity 
 appears to have been his ruling passion. Among the few persons he 
 feared was George Selwyn. These two wits had once a trial of skill. 
 Selwyn prevailed in the war of words. Charles afterwards took 
 Selwyn in his carriage to White's. At parting, Selwyn said, " Re- 
 member this is the first set down you have given me to-day." 
 
 Townshend " had almost every great talent and every little quality. 
 His vanity exceeded even his abilities, and his suspicions seemed to 
 make him doubt if he had any. With such a capacity he must have 
 been the greatest man of his age, and perhaps inferior to no man of 
 any age, had his faults been only in moderate proportion. In short, 
 if he had had but common truth, common sincerity, common honesty,
 
 74 MR. MILBANKE [l761. 
 
 many, as we were in point of honour obliged to go 
 on with the plan we had engaged in, a plan that we 
 had hitherto succeeded so well in, that the employing 
 130,000 French in Germany, prevented them annoy- 
 ing our coasts, and recovering what we have conquered, 
 besides, the French might fall on Holland, who were 
 not in a condition to defend themselves, and that 
 the totality of the war had been the great means of 
 success. 
 
 "Eigby* spoke next; complained of the immense 
 
 common modesty, common steadiness, common courage, common 
 sense." — Walpole. 
 
 * The Right Hon. Richard Rigby, of Mistley Hall, Essex, Member 
 for Tavistock, Paymaster of the Forces, the leader of the Duke of 
 Bedford's party in the House of Commons, hence called " Bloomsbury 
 Dick." " His parts," says Walpole, " were strong and quick, but 
 totally uncultivated ; and so much had he trusted to unaffected good 
 sense, that he could never afterwards acquire the necessary tempera- 
 ment of art in public speaking ; he placed his honour in a steady 
 addiction to whatever faction he was united with ; and from the 
 gaiety of his temper, having indulged himself in profuse drinking, 
 he was often humed beyond the bounds of that interest which he 
 meant should govern all his actions, and which his generous extrava- 
 gance for ever combated." We may gather from a letter written by 
 Garrick to Burke what sort of a life Rigby led at Mistley. " If jj-ou 
 had a house on the swamps of Essex, where you were obliged to 
 drink brandy by way of small beer to keep the ague out of your 
 bones, I should long to be with you, but I have not a day to spare 
 till I set out for the Paymaster." 
 
 "When in his place in the House of Commons, Rigby," says 
 Wraxall, " was invariably habited in a full suit of a dark colour, 
 without lace or embroidery, close buttoned, with his sword thrust 
 through the pocket. Corpulent in his person, he was not on that 
 account unwieldy or inactive. His countenance was very expressive, 
 but not of genius, still less did it indicate timidity or modesty."
 
 17C1.] TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. 75 
 
 expense, and the vast effusion of blood; attacked the 
 Treaties, particularly that with the King of Prussia, 
 which confined us not to make a peace without his 
 consent; made a weak attack on Mr. Pitt with great 
 heat and impetuosity, and sat down. 
 
 " The next champion that stood up, was Sir F. B. 
 Delaval,* who talked much, and said too little, for the 
 recalling the troops : said he recollected to have heard 
 a considerable person, lately retired from a great post, 
 affirm, that whoever, in this country, of what size or 
 stature soever, should venture to support Hanover 
 measures, he would find it hang about his neck like a 
 millstone, and sink him to the bottom of the sea;f but 
 
 * Sir Francis Blake Delaval, Bart. Member for Andover. He was 
 at this time a zealous disciple of Leicester House, but later he became 
 a member of the society styled " The Supporters of the Bill of Rights." 
 He was, however, looked upon with distrust by his associates, who 
 considered him as a spy from the Court. On one occasion he and his 
 family played " Othello" at Drury Lane, having hired the theatre for 
 the purpose. In 1754, being opposed to Beckford at Shaftesbury, he 
 thus addressed him : — 
 
 " Art thou the man whom men famed Beckford call ? " 
 
 To which the other replied : — 
 
 " Art thou the much more famous Delaval ? " 
 
 Sir Francis was no friend to the statesman upon whose conduct he 
 now commented. When Pitt received the pension and the peerage, 
 Delaval said, " The man is a fool ; if he had gone into the city, told 
 them he had a poor wife and children unprovided for, and opened a 
 subscription, he would have got 500,000/. instead of 3000/. a-year." 
 
 t In the debate on the treaties in 1755, Pitt, attacking Fox, said, 
 " He did not know what majorities would do, but this treaty (with 
 Prussia) would hang like a millstone round his neck, and sink any 
 minister along with the nation." — Walpole's George the Second, 
 i. 413.
 
 76 MR. MILBANKE [l761. 
 
 lie saw that person, though not very robust, sitting as 
 if it sat light on his shoulders. 
 
 "Stanley* spoke well and ably; said he should 
 speak to a point, that his late employment had given 
 him an opportunity of examining thoroughly, and 
 that if it was proved, all the rest was needless, namely 
 that the German war was highly detrimental to France; 
 he also attempted to show, that the Austrian alliance 
 with France was unnatural, and the French at this 
 time hated the Austrians worse than the English. 
 
 " George Grenville spoke against the German war 
 in general, f the Treaty, but thought it necessary, as 
 we were so far embarrassed, to continue, but thought 
 other plans might be proposed more effectual.J 
 
 " Mr. Pitt, with great serenity, congratulated the 
 House on the temper of the day; that gentlemen spoke 
 their opinions freely, without heat or animosity; gave 
 his reasons artfully, for coming into, and going on with 
 their plans, when he was entreated, pressed, and com- 
 pelled to take the seals, but declared, from his infancy, 
 he had ever inclined towards Continental measures; 
 
 * The British Minister in France during the late unsuccessful 
 negociation. See above, p. 43. 
 
 t Mr. Grenville " had, during the last reign, avowedly or silently 
 supported every one of Pitt's expensive German measures ; indeed, he 
 had held by Pitt's favour one of the most lucrative places under 
 Government, the Treasurer of the Navy, The scene was changed, 
 and Grenville with it." — Walpole's George the Third, i. 104. 
 
 X Grenville " levelled several reflections indirectly at Mr. P[itt], 
 and was more the aggressor than was perhaps advisable in this de- 
 bate." — Lord Royston to the Earl of Hardwicke, Dec. 9, 1761.
 
 17H1.J TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. 77 
 
 complimented his friend Stanley, to the highest degree, 
 for his abilities in his late negociation; congratulated 
 his King, his country, &c., that they had a person of 
 so great capacity among them; sneered at Rigby and 
 Sir Francis Delaval ; said he would not disappoint the 
 gentlemen so far as to take no notice of them ; he con- 
 fessed he did see the person of the latter standing up, 
 and recollected to have heard him, — that was sufficient. 
 " Lord Barrington supported the German war, and 
 took an opportunity of defending Lord Ligonier, who 
 was absent, and had been attacked upon some trivial 
 military matter, by Rigby. High words arose between 
 them, and Itigby said, though he confessed himself not 
 of abilities to face Mr. Pitt; he was not a bit afraid of 
 that noble lord, upon any ground. Lord Barrington 
 assured him in return, that he was not in the least 
 afraid to meet that gentleman in any shape, on any 
 ground. 
 
 "Mr. Ongley''" spoke next, for recalling the troops, 
 without prevailing much, and said nothing worthy of 
 notice. 
 
 " Mr. Nugentf spoke next, with the Ministry, but 
 indifferently. 
 
 * Robert Henley, M.P. for Bedfordshire, assumed the surname of 
 Ongley, on succeeding to the estates of his graiiduncle, Sir Richard 
 Ongley. In 1776 he was created Baron Ongley, in the peerage of 
 Ireland. " Ongley spoke on the same side with Rigby, that he came 
 down to the House with an honest enmity to the German war." — 
 Viscount Royston to the Earl of Hardwicke, Dec. 9, 1761. 
 
 -f- Robert Nugent, a native of Ireland. He had lived on terms of 
 much intimacy with Frederick Prince of Wales, who, at the time of
 
 78 MR. MILBANKE TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. [l761. 
 
 " Mr. Legge said that it appeared to him that the 
 diflference rose upon whether of two modes were the 
 best, — the one that had succeeded, or one that might 
 succeed; was much inclined to a peace, — not a bad 
 one ; and wished we had one. 
 
 " Tommy Townshend, Mr. Huett,* Rose Fuller,i- — 
 all for continuing the troops. 
 
 " Rose Fuller declared that he believed, if we recalled 
 
 his death, owed him a considerable sum of money. The debt con- 
 tracted by the father was liquidated by the son, who paid him off in 
 the form of places, pensions, and peerages. Nugent became succes- 
 sively Baron Nugent, Viscount Clare, and Earl Nugent. Opinions 
 upon public matters he had none. He spoke and voted exactly as his 
 master bade him. His religious creed sat as loosely upon him as his 
 political. He was brought up a Protestant, turned Roman Catholic, 
 wrote a satire on his original creed, and died in the bosom of the 
 Church he had so much ridiculed. 
 
 This " voluptuous Irishman," as Glover calls him, was indebted to 
 nature for an athletic form, a vigorous constitution, and a stentorian 
 voice, an inexhaustible flow of spirits, a rich fund of humour, and a 
 ready eloquence, in which bashfulness had no share. His coarse jokes 
 lie scattered over the pages of Walpole. Nugent was author of 
 several odes and epistles. He was a friend of Dr. Goldsmith, who 
 addressed to him his celebrated " Haunch of Venison." On one 
 occasion he sent the Queen a bale of Irish manufacture, accompanied 
 by a copy of bad verses from himself The wags of the " RoUiad " 
 make her Majesty thank him for both pieces of stte^. 
 
 * James Hewit, Member for Coventry, King's Sergeant, brother- 
 in-law of Sir George Savile. He subsequently became Lord Chan- 
 cellor of Ireland. In 1768, he was created Viscount Lifford, in the 
 peerage of that kingdom. The Duke of Grafton speaks of him in his 
 Journal " as a true Whig, who bore a character to which all parties 
 bore their assent of respect." 
 
 t Rose Fuller, of Rose Hill, county of Sussex, M.P. for Maidstone, 
 and afterwards for Rye, Chairman of Ways and Means in Lord Rock-
 
 17G1,] CHARACTER OF BARRK. 79 
 
 the troops, our whole conquests would fall back into 
 the hands of the French. 
 
 " The whole closed at eight o'clock, for continuing 
 the troops, 7iemine contradiceutey 
 
 Before I give Mr. Milbanke's account of the second 
 night's debate, I would introduce the following sketch 
 of a new and subsequently conspicuous performer on 
 the parliamentary stage. a 
 
 Isaac Barrd was a native of Ireland. His parents ^^}A 
 kept a small grocer's shop in Dublin. At an early age 
 he entered the army, and served with much distinction 
 in America, against the French. Dividing his time 
 between literature and the study of his profession, 
 he found a kindred spirit for both pursuits in General 
 Wolfe, who lived with him on the most intimate terms. 
 He was present on the heights of Abraham, where that 
 gallant young soldier, in the moment of victory, received 
 liis mortal wound. He was himself wounded in the 
 same action. In West's celebrated picture of the death 
 of Wolfe, Barr(5 forms one of the group of officers round 
 the dying General. Returning to England, in 1760, 
 
 ingham's first Administration. He was for several years a zealous 
 Whig, but suddenly cooled towards the party. Among Lord Rock- 
 ingham's papers is a list of the House of Commons, showing the 
 political bias of each member ; his name there appears among the 
 " doubtfuls." Almon says, that after Fuller's death it was discovered 
 tliat he had for several years been in the receipt of a pension of 500/. 
 a-year. Burke, who knew nothing of the cause, but felt the eflFect of 
 his desertion, lamented to Lord Rockingham that "his Lordship's 
 withered old rose, who, in his best, was no better than adog-rose, had, 
 within a few weeks, totally altered his hue." — Correspondence, ii. 8.
 
 80 MR. MILBANKE [l761. 
 
 he became the following year, through the agency of 
 Mr. Fox, Lord Shelburne's nominee for Wycombe. His 
 motive for attacking Pitt, in the manner described in 
 the following letter, was for having neglected, as he 
 supposed, his application for promotion. In a letter to 
 Pitt, written in April 1760, he says, " After the defeat 
 of his Majesty's enemies, the trophies I can boast only 
 indicate how much I suffered, — my zealous and sole 
 advocate killed, my left eye rendered useless, and the 
 ball still in my head." 
 
 His appearance on this his parliamentary dehut^ is 
 graphically described by Walpole. " My ear was struck 
 with sounds I had little been accustomed to of late — 
 virulent abuse on the last reign, — and from a voice 
 unknown to me. I turned and saw a face equally new; 
 a black, robust man, of a military figure, rather hard- 
 favoured than not, young, with a peculiar distortion on 
 one side of his face, which it seems was a bullet lodged 
 loosely in his cheek, and which gave a savage glare to 
 one eye. What I less expected, from his appearance, 
 was very classic and elegant diction, and as determined 
 boldness as if accustomed to harangue in that place." 
 
 MR. MILBANKE TO THE MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHAM. 
 
 " Argyle Street, Dec. 28 th, 1671. 
 
 " In my last I was rather hasty, as I concluded before 
 
 the sport was over. The next day produced some new 
 
 combatants. Mr. Bunbury (whom I described in my 
 
 last), with a flashy speech, and no small assurance,
 
 1701.] TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. 81 
 
 abused Continental, Hanoverian, and Russian measures; 
 called the King of Prussia ' the petty elector of Branden- 
 bourgh,' and spoke disrespectfully of the late King; a 
 great deal of bombast and false action; a set speech 
 calculated for a reply to Mr. Pitt the day before, but 
 kept till it was stale. 
 
 " Mr. Glover gave a long history of treaties for 
 several years back, and aimed to prove the absurdity 
 of the Prussian Treaty, wherein we were bound not to 
 make peace without the King of Prussia's consent. 
 Mr. Pitt showed the obligation was reciprocal, as was 
 usual between parties engaged in a general treaty. I 
 pass over some stragglers, to hasten to the hero of the 
 piece. Colonel Barre, an Irishman of low birth, bred 
 an attorney, but taking to the sword, was in high 
 favour with General AVolfe, and good repute as a 
 soldier, with a most consummate assurance, good figure, 
 military countenance, and ready at his tongue, made 
 a most violent attack on our late measures, the late 
 K — g, and a personal one on Mr. Pitt. After abusing 
 our treaties, &c., he said the nation had been so biassed 
 in the late reign by the Court, that from the K — g to 
 the lowest of the people, Ave were all become Hanovers. 
 Then he attacked Mr. Pitt's political principles, and 
 said his life had been a series of change and contra- 
 diction, from the beginning to the end; that after the 
 most violent protestations against Continental and 
 Hanoverian connections, when he had thrust himself 
 into the Ministry, cameleon-like, he took the colour 
 of the ground he stood on. He then ridiculed his 
 
 VOL. I. 6
 
 82 MR. MILBANKE [l7Cl. 
 
 figure and action, saying, he was amazed to see the 
 gentleman with solemn looks, with eyes uplift to heaven, 
 one hand beating on his breast, and formally contra- 
 dicting and disowning the principles he had maintained 
 the day before. 
 
 " Mr. Pitt was so mortified and hurried, that he said 
 once or twice to his friend Beckford, ' What 's to be 
 done?' At last Beckford, all in a tremble, called him 
 to order for using the King's name, when, he said, the 
 King had no confidence in him. A debate from thence 
 arose on the use of the King's name, when Mr. Fox 
 started up, and said the use of the King's name in that 
 sense was not irregular, and that the honourable gentle- 
 man had said nothing disorderly from the beginning to 
 the end, and so hallooed Barre on again, who got up 
 with the same intrepidity, and concluded without vary- 
 ing his style. I fancy the House would not have 
 suffered such scurrility on any other person, but they 
 sneered to see the great warrior worried. I find Mr. 
 Pitt was exceedingly mortified to find the House so 
 little inclined towards him. I fancy he expected to 
 shelter himself behind the Duke of New— e, and his 
 party in the House ; and out of doors, thought he stood 
 on good ground. In his speech, he had flattered the 
 Duke of New — e for his conduct at the head of the 
 Treasury ; in the same style he flattered Lord Anson. 
 Barr6, in plain words, in one part of his speech, called 
 him ' the most infamous minister tliat ever England 
 produced.' 
 
 " The Solicitor-General vindicated the late King very
 
 1701.] TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. 83 
 
 handsomely and ably, thoroughly answered all the dis- 
 respectful hints that were thrown out against him, and 
 declared that, to his certain knowledge, so far from the 
 King's heaping up his Hanoverian treasures, and cut- 
 ting up the bowels of Englishmen, as Barrd had expressed 
 himself, he never applied any money from hence to the 
 defence of his Hanoverian territories, till he had entirely 
 exhausted the Avhole of his Hanoverian coffers. This 
 is a circumstance but little known, and deserves to be 
 made public. 
 
 " I left Mr. Pitt's answers to Sir Francis Delaval 
 short in my first letter. He turned to Mr. Fox, and 
 looked him full in the face, and said, ' if any gentleman 
 in this country would venture to take the lead, on any 
 other plan but the present, he would make his heart 
 ache ;' and now, I think, I have answered the mill- 
 stone." 
 
 The effect produced upon the House by this extra- 
 ordinary philippic may be judged of by the observation 
 to which it gave rise. Pitt made no manner of reply ; 
 only turning to Beckford, and asking pretty loud, " How 
 far the scalping Indians cast their tomahawks?"* When 
 Barre sat down, he was observed to eat a biscuit, upon 
 which some one cried out, " You should feed him upon 
 raw flesh." Another observed that he knew of nobody 
 fit to enter against him but an officer in America, who 
 was distinguished by the name of " Kill him and eat 
 him." Charles Townshend, being asked when the House 
 
 * Walpole's George III. 
 
 G 2
 
 84 EFFECTS OF THE PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE. [1761. 
 
 would rise for the holidays, replied, " I do not know, 
 but when it does the roads will be as dangerous as if 
 the army M'ere disbanded." And Barr^, having said 
 that he would not answer for his head, but would for 
 his heart, " Yes," said George Selwyn, " if he could 
 not the former would have been broken long ago." * 
 
 * Walpole.
 
 1702.] WAR WITH SPAIN DECLARED. 85 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 WAR WITH SPAIN DECLARED. LETTER OF DUKE OF NEWCASTLE. 
 
 PROPOSED ATTACK ON THE IIAVANNAH. EARL OF ALBEMARLE. 
 
 COMMODORE KEPPEL. SIR GEORGE POCOCK. LETTER TO LORD 
 
 ALBEMARLE. CHARACTER OF COUNT DE VIRI. CHOISEUL TO BAILLI 
 
 DE SOLAR. LETTER TO LORD HARDWICKE. DUKE OF NEWCASTLE 
 
 TO LORD HARDWICKE. LORD BUTE's SECRET NEGOCIATION WITH 
 
 VIENNA. LETTERS FROM THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE TO LORDS 
 
 HARDWICKE AND ROCKINGHAM^ ON HIS RESIGNATION OF THE OFFICE 
 OF FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY, AND TO THE DUKE OF CUMBER- 
 LAND WITH HIS ANSWER. 
 
 On the first day of the new year, the Count de 
 Fuentes quitted England. On the fourth, war was 
 formally proclaimed against Spain. The immediate 
 occasion of these fresh hostilities, was Lord Egremont's 
 vapouring despatch. But the war might probably have 
 been altogether avoided, had Mr. Pitt, while Minister, 
 adopted a more conciliatory tone towards the Court 
 of Versailles. If that statesman would have granted 
 such terms to France as she could have accepted 
 without losing her position in the scale of nations, the 
 famous " Family Compact," the ostensible cause of the 
 rupture, would have been altogether unnecessary. Thus 
 when Pitt, at the meeting of Parliament, claimed credit 
 for his foresight and intelligence, in recommending im- 
 mediate hostilities, may not the prophet be accused of 
 having had some share in fulfilling his own prediction?
 
 86 LETTER OF DUKE OF NEWCASTLE. [1762. 
 
 It is clue to the Duke of Newcastle, whose memory 
 stands charged with political delinquencies enougli, to 
 show that from almost the greatest crime of Avhich a 
 public man can be guilty, that of unnecessarily involv- 
 ing his country in war, he was, in this instance, exempt. 
 His correspondence throughout shows, that he was 
 oi3posed to the aggressive policy adopted towards Spain. 
 Writing to Lord Hardwicke, on the 10th of January, 
 he says: — 
 
 " Every friend I have dings in my ear, that the 
 whole load of our miserable situation will be laid upon 
 me. My Lord Bute complains that I am laying it all 
 upon him; as long as he is the sole dictator^ there it 
 ought to lie. But I never withdraw from what I have 
 advised and think right. To be sure I did, and do, 
 think the Spanish affairs might have been treated in a 
 manner that would have given us a chance to have 
 avoided the war. But that was mere matter of 
 opinion, in which, to be sure, others might, and indeed 
 did, differ Avithout any unkindness or disrespect to me. 
 I have (shown), and shall show, as much desire to carry 
 on this terrible war against Spain with success, as any- 
 body ; perhaps having tried a Spanish war with as much 
 zeal, I am sure, as any man, even Mr. Pitt himself can 
 do, and having found little success in it, I may per- 
 haps not be quite so sanguine as others are." 
 
 Two days after the declaration of war, the Cabinet 
 assembled, to concert measures for the approaching 
 conflict.
 
 i';g2.] proposed attack on the havannah. 87 
 
 " At the meeting on Wednesday," writes the Duke 
 of Newcastle, " where there were none but the two 
 Secretaries, the Duke of Devonshire, Lord Anson, 
 Lord Ligonier,"' IVIr. Grenville, and myself, we began 
 with my Lord Anson's project, of attacking the Havan- 
 nah, and after hearing the facilities, which his Lordship 
 and Lord Ligonier apprehended there were in doing 
 it, we all unanimously advised the undertaking it 
 as certainly a measure of the greatest importance to 
 Spain; and the method proposed by them for it, will 
 cause as little additional expense as a measure of that 
 magnitude and consequence would do." 
 
 In selecting the Havannah, the centre of the whole 
 trade of the Spanish West Lidies, as the point of 
 attack. Ministers sought to avoid a repetition of the 
 errors committed by their predecessors, in the former 
 war with Spain, when operations were directed against 
 so inferior a place as Porto Bello, instead of proceeding 
 at once to Carthagena. 
 
 The choice of the chief officers of this expedition 
 was assigned to William, Duke of Cumberland. For 
 
 * Field-Marshal Viscount Ligonier, of Enniskillen, created in 17GG 
 an English Earl. He was a Frenchman by birth, but entered the 
 English service at an early age. " This honest old General," as 
 Chesterfield calls him, served with much distinction under the Duke 
 of Marlborough, and afterwards in the wars of Germany. So bril- 
 liant was his conduct at Dettingen, that George the Second invested 
 him with the order of the Bath on the field of battle. Ligonier was 
 a thoroughly amiable man, and was both a favourite in the camp and 
 the Court. He died in 1770, at the advanced age of ninety-two, 
 retaining the gaiety of his nation to the last.
 
 88 EARL OF ALBEMARLE. [l762. 
 
 although the Whig predilections of the hero of Culloden 
 prevented much intimacy between him and George the 
 Third, yet the young King appears to have looked up 
 to his uncle as a great military authority, and to have 
 consulted him on all matters connected with his pro- 
 fession. On this occasion, the Duke nominated to the 
 chief command of the army. L ord Alb emarle. Asso- 
 ciated with Lord Albemarle, were his two brothers. 
 To Augustus Keppel, the elder, who bore the distin- 
 guishing pendant of commodore, were assigned the 
 active naval operations of the siege, while upon 
 William, devolved the storming of the Moro, the fort 
 upon which the city of the Havannah mainly depended 
 for its defence. 
 
 George Keppel, third Earl of Albemarle, was at this 
 time a Lieutenant-General, a Privy Councillor, Governor 
 of Jersey, and Colonel of the King's Own Dragoon 
 Guards. From the age of sixteen he had been in the 
 household of the Duke of Cumberland; and up to the 
 period of his nomination, his Royal Highnesses inse- 
 parable companion, whether in peace or war. After 
 the battle of Culloden, Lord Albemarle, or, as he then 
 was, Lord Bury, brought the intelligence of the victory 
 to George the Second, who made him a present of a 
 sword and five hundred guineas, and appointed him his 
 aide-de-camp. He was very near, however, being dis- 
 qualified for ever as a messenger of triumph, for on the 
 morning of the action, " a poor mountaineer approached 
 the lines of the English, demanded quarter, and was 
 sent to the rear. As he lounged backwards and for-
 
 17G2.] COMMODORE KEPPEL. 89 
 
 wards through the lines, apparently very indifferent 
 to what was going on, and even paying no attention 
 to tlie ridicule with which the soldiers greeted his 
 uncouth appearance, Lord Bury, aide-de-camp to the 
 Duke, happened to pass, in the discharge of his duties, 
 when all at once the Highlander seized one of the 
 soldiers' muskets, and discharged it at that officer; 
 receiving next moment, with perfect indifference, and 
 as a matter of course, the shot with which another 
 soldier immediately terminated his existence. He had 
 intended to shoot the Duke of Cumberland, but fired 
 prematurely, and without effect, at an inferior officer, 
 whose gaudy apparel seemed, in his simple eyes, to 
 indicate the highest rank." * 
 
 Augustus Keppel, the next brother, entered the navy 
 at ten years of age, " went foreign " immediately, and 
 continued afloat, with little intermission, until he hoisted 
 his flag. After three years' cruise in the Mediter- 
 ranean, as a midshipman, he returned home, in time 
 to accompany Anson on his famous voyage round the 
 world. He had the peak of his cap shot off at Payta, 
 and was promoted to his lieutenancy for his gallantry 
 in the capture of the Acapulco galleon. 
 
 "On the 30th of November (1743), I went," writes 
 Augustus Keppel, "up in the cutter to Wampo, and 
 so to Canton, to attend the Commodore to the Vice- 
 King of Canton." f 
 
 On the 30th of November, 1843, being, to a day, one 
 
 * Chambers's Hist, of the Rebellion, ii. 90-1. 
 t Keppel's Lite of Viscount Keppel, i. 68.
 
 90 COMMODORE KEPPEL. [l702. 
 
 hundred years later, Augustus Keppel's great nephew, 
 Henry Keppel, also a sailor, succeeded for the first time 
 in getting within the walls of Canton.* 
 
 At the age of twenty, Augustus Keppel, having now 
 attained the rank of Captain, was appointed to the 
 command of the " Maidstone," a fine fifty-gun frigate, 
 in which he was the most successful cruiser of his time, 
 until he ran her to pieces on the coast of Britany, 
 while in hot pursuit of a large privateer, amidst rocks 
 and shoals, and under the fire of the enemies' batteries. 
 In the year 1749, Keppel was sent with a squadron of 
 ships, to demand from the Dey of Algiers compensation 
 for injuries inflicted upon English vessels by the Bar- 
 bary pirates. The youthful Commodore and Envoy 
 was of fair complexion and diminutive stature, and 
 looked younger than his actual age — tAventy-five years. 
 
 " On his arrival at the palace," says Northcote, "he 
 demanded an audience, and, on his admission to the 
 divan, laid open his embassy, requiring at the same 
 time, in the name of the Sovereign, ample satisfaction 
 for the injuries done to the British flag. Surprised 
 at the boldness of his remonstrances, and enraged at 
 his demand for justice, the Dey, despising his apparent 
 youth, exclaimed that he wondered at the insolence of 
 the King of Great Britain, in sending him an insigni- 
 ficant beardless boy. 
 
 " On this the youthful hot-spirited Commodore re- 
 plied, ' Had my master supposed that wisdom was 
 
 * My brother. Captain Keppel, was then in command of H.M.S^ 
 " Dido."
 
 17G2.] COMMODORE KEPPEL. .91 
 
 measured by the length of beard, he would have sent 
 your Deyship a he-goat/ The tyrant, unused to such 
 language from the sycophants of his court, ordered his 
 mutes to advance with the bowstring. The Commo- 
 dore, being very near a window which looked out upon 
 the bay, directed the attention of the African chief to 
 the squadron then at anchor, telling him that if it was 
 his pleasure to put him to death, there were Englishmen 
 enough on board to make him a glorious funeral pile. 
 The Dey cooled at this hint, and was wise enough to 
 let him depart in safety." * 
 
 Keppel was the junior Member of the Court Martial 
 that condemned Byng to death. His efforts to save 
 tliat unfortunate Admiral are too well known to be 
 repeated here. 
 
 In the year 1758, Keppel captured the Island of 
 Goree, and, the following year, commanded one of the 
 eight ships which, under Lord Hawke, in a heavy gale 
 of wind, a high sea, a strange and rocky coast, and 
 a lee shore, completely anniliilated the French fleet. 
 In this action Keppel sank the Thesee, an eighty-gun 
 ship, with a crew of fifteen hundred men. "KeppeFs 
 ship," says Walpole, " was full of water, and he thought 
 he was sinking ; a sudden squall emptied his ship, but he 
 was informed all his powder was wet. ' Then,' said he, 
 ' I am sorry I am safe.' They came and told him a 
 small quantity was undamaged. ' Very well,' said he, 
 ' then attack again.' "f The next year he was appointed, 
 
 * Northcote's Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds, i. 32-3. 
 t Walpole's Life of George IL ii. 395.
 
 92 SIR GEORGE POCOCK. [l762. 
 
 with General Hodgson, to the joint command of the 
 exjDedition to Belleisle. 
 
 Lord Albemarle's naval coadjutor, in the expedition 
 against the Havannah, was Admiral Sir George Pocock. 
 This officer commenced his career under Sir George 
 Byng. In 1748, as chief officer on the leeward station, 
 he captured nearly forty vessels belonging to a French 
 convoy. At the attack on Chandernagore, in 1757, he 
 would not quit the deck, although he had received 
 seven wounds. His principal services were in the East 
 Indies. His competitor was poor Admiral Lally, who 
 was so brutally executed in 1761. Lally was for some 
 time a prisoner in England. On being introduced to 
 Pocock, he thus addressed him : — " Dear Sir George, 
 as the first man in your profession, I cannot but respect 
 and esteem you, though you have been the greatest 
 enemy I ever had. But for you I should have triumphed 
 in India, instead of being made a captive. When we 
 first sailed out to give you battle, I had provided a 
 number of musicians on board the 'Zodiaque' (the French 
 flag-ship), intending to give the ladies a ball on our 
 victory; but you left me only three fiddlers alive, and 
 treated us all so roughly, that you quite spoiled us for 
 dancing." 
 
 To those who may wish to see a favourable portrai- 
 ture of William, surnamed " The Butcher," from his 
 severities in the Highlands, after the rebellion in 
 1745-6, the following letter, and others of similar 
 tenor, may prove interesting.
 
 17G2.] LETTER TO LORD ALBEMARLE. 93 
 
 H. R. H. THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND TO THE EARL OF 
 
 ALBEMARLE. 
 
 " My DEAR Lord, '•' Windsor, Great Lodge, Feb. 24, 1 762. 
 
 " A THOUSAND thanks for your letter of the 22nd. 
 I have felt the bad weather, that has lasted ever since 
 we parted, both in body and mind, for I have had a 
 sharp fit of the gout (which, by the by, is going off) ; 
 but the contrary winds were still more unpleasant, as 
 I dread the loss of one single day at present, and that 
 not the less for Knowles's* company, who is here 
 croaking every day at dinner. Any bystander would 
 think me the projector and Jitter-out of the expedition ; 
 but the truth is, the subject is so tender, that I cannot 
 even allow suppositions, which, perhaps, are not quite 
 groundless. 
 
 " I must not omit saying, that I gave your brotherf 
 false intelligence about the Moro fort, for he asked me 
 whether ships could anchor before that fort, and I 
 answered in the negative; but on further inquiry of 
 Knowles, he says, the men-of-war may anchor as near 
 as they please, in from four to six fathoms water; 
 
 * To Admiral Sir Charles Knowles is due the merit of the original 
 project for the reduction of the Havannah. Returning from Jamaica 
 in 1756, he obtained leave to view the fortifications of that city, and 
 on the appearance of a rupture with Spain, submitted to Mr. Pitt a 
 plan — probaV)ly the same which he laid before the Cabinet at the 
 time of his resignation. Sir Charles afterwards showed his papers to 
 the Duke of Cumberland, who forwarded them to the Government. 
 
 t Commodore Keppel.
 
 94 CHARACTER OF COUNT DE VIRI. [l762. 
 
 though, he assured me, he had told your brother, yet 
 I thought it best to write myself. 
 
 " I have a million of compliments and good wishes 
 from my sister Mary ;* and you know too well how much 
 she loves me, not to think her sincere on the subject. 
 
 " Dear Albemarle, get away as fast as I wish, and judge 
 whether I don't love my easterly wind more than ever. 
 Nobody can tell better what you have felt on this 
 occasion, for our feelings have truly sympathized, as 
 I am in hopes they ever will. 
 
 " Yours for ever, 
 
 " William." 
 
 Scarcely had the war with Spain been proclaimed, 
 than the Government, or rather Lord Bute, re-opened 
 the negociation with France. " The first great outlines 
 of the peace," writes Lord Chesterfield, "were arranged, 
 under the sole direction of Viri, for Lord Bute was 
 wholly ignorant of negociations and foreign policy." 
 
 The Count de Viri was a native of Savoy ; he had 
 been originally a monk. In the reign of George the 
 Second, he was appointed Minister to the English Court. 
 Viri had the sagacity to foresee the position Lord Bute 
 
 * Princess Mary, fourth daughter of George the Second, married 
 in 1740 Frederick, Landgrave of Hesse Cassel. "He was a brutal 
 German, obstinate, of no genius, and after long treating Princess 
 Mary, who was the gentlest and mildest of her race, with great in- 
 humanity, had for some time lived upon no terms with her," — Wal- 
 pole's Memoirs, i. 351. 
 
 Queen Caroline, on her death-bed, spoke of " the meek and mild 
 disposition of the Princess Mary." — llervey, ii. 513.
 
 17(52.] CHARACTER OF COUiNT DE VIRI. 95 
 
 would eventually hold, and paid his court to him so 
 effectually, as to gain a complete ascendancy over him ; 
 indeed, the love of intrigue and mystery of the wily 
 Savoyard, found a responsive feeling in the breast of 
 the favourite. The conduct of the Peace was not the 
 only commission with which Lord Bute charged Viri. 
 It appears by the Hardwicke papers, that he had 
 assigned to him the scarcely less difficult task of re- 
 conciling the Duke of Newcastle to part with the 
 power, while he retained the title of Minister. His 
 services were amply rewarded. The King granted him 
 a pension of a thousand a-year, on the Irish Pension 
 list, under the name of Charles, and allowed his son 
 to succeed him at the Court of London. On his return 
 to Sardinia, Viri retired to his States in Savoy, on 
 the plea of ill health, but in reality, to avoid the 
 Marquis de St. Germain, the Sardinian Minister of 
 Foreign Affiiirs, who he knew could not endure him. 
 But hearing that the Marquis was ill, he so timed his 
 visit to Turin, as to arrive when his enemy was at the 
 point of death. Viri knew that he was in no good 
 odour at Court. He had reason to suspect that the 
 King of Sardinia was aware of the intrigues that he 
 had set on foot, to prolong his stay in England. 
 
 The day after the death of M. de Saint Germain, he 
 appeared before the King and made his peace wdth his 
 Majesty, by presenting him with a magnificent suite of 
 Gobelin tapestry, which had been given him by Louis 
 the Fifteenth. 
 
 M. Dutens, the author of " Memoirs of a Traveller in
 
 96 CHARACTER OF COUNT DE VIRI. [l762. 
 
 Retirement," was at this time Charge d' Affaires at the 
 Court of Turin, and went frequently to see Viri. He 
 was treated with much apparent confidence by the 
 Count, who seemed anxious to know who was spoken of 
 as the new Foreign Secretary; Dutens telling him that 
 the Count himself was considered the successful candi- 
 date : he replied, " I am tired of business, I have 
 already one foot in the grave, and how could any one 
 be so simple as to imagine that / would now go to 
 mix in the bustle of courts and politics." This assur- 
 ance he repeated several times. He was actually at the 
 time the Foreign Secretary. 
 
 Dutens, on another occasion, applied to Viri on behalf 
 of a friend. Some time after, the Minister sent for him 
 as early as eight o'clock in the morning ; spoke in high 
 terms of his friend, and satisfied him that his request 
 would be granted. Dutens had scarcely got home, when 
 he saw his friend, who laughing, told him he knew all 
 that happened. " Count de Viri," said he, " sent for 
 me at seven o'clock ; he wished me to witness how much 
 he had my affairs at heart, and made me conceal myself 
 behind a screen, while he was talking to you." 
 
 This love of concealment manifested itself in the 
 most trifling concerns. He had once a slight wound on 
 one of his legs, and sent for a surgeon to examine it. 
 A similar accident happening to the other leg, he put 
 that under the care of another surgeon, so that it might 
 not be known he had hurts on both legs at the same time. 
 
 When Viri died, his secretary said in answer to an 
 inquirer, "He is dead, but he does not wish it to be
 
 1762.] CIIOISEUL TO THE BAILLI DE SOLAR. 97 
 
 known f and the King of Sardinia, when he heard of 
 his death said, " That he would have made a mystery of 
 it, if he could." 
 
 The uegociations with France were carried on by 
 Count de Yiri through the medium of his country- 
 man the Bailli de Solar, the Sardinian Ambassador 
 at Paris. The Bailli had been previously Ambassador 
 from his own Court, to that of Rome, at the same time 
 that Choiseul was Ambassador from France. A warm 
 friendship had, since that period, subsisted between 
 them. 
 
 M. Dutens makes a favourable mention of the Bailli 
 in his Memoirs. 
 
 The allusion in the following letter, to the " dissen- 
 sion interieure," sufficiently accounts for the tone 
 adopted by the writer. 
 
 LE DUG DE CHOISEUL A M. LE BAILLI SOLAR DE BRIELLE. 
 
 " he 23 Janvier, 1762. 
 " Nous nous parlerons Lundi, mon cher Ambassadeur, 
 sur les lettres de M. le Comte de Viry. Elles ont un 
 tour entortill6, qui nous jette dans la mefiance. II 
 nous parait que, dans la situation actuelle, si les Anglais 
 veulent de bonne foy la paix, il faut qu'ils agissent avec 
 la meme franchise que nous avons en vis-a-vis d'eux 
 quand nous la voulions au printemps passe. Cette 
 franchise consiste k nous faire dire nettement, ' Nous 
 voulons la paix et nous vous offrons ainsi qu'a I'Espagne 
 telles conditions.' Sur cela on n^gocie, on se rapproche, 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 98 CIIOISEUL TO BAILLI DE SOLAR. [l7G2. 
 
 et on conclue; si au contraire, Ton imagine a Lon- 
 dres que sur des insinuations que peuvent etre des- 
 avou^es, nous ferons des propositions, on les y attendera 
 long temps. Voila mon avis, et ce que je vous con- 
 seille de mander a Monsieur de Viry. Je pense qu'il 
 faut beaucoup refl^chir avant que de prendre un parti ; 
 mais, quand on Fa pris, il ne faut pas f etonner pour 
 I'executer sur tout lorsqu'on a a ftiire as d'honnetes 
 gens, qui sont bien ^loignes de vouloir compromettre 
 meme leurs ennemis. 
 
 Le Ministere Anglais ne pent avoir que trois vues, ou 
 de semer, par des insinuations faciles, de la jalousie 
 entre nos allies, ou d'avoir interet de faire actuellement 
 la paix pour remedier a la dissension interieure, qui se 
 trouve dans le Conseil Britannique; ou parcequ'il sent 
 que le fardeau de la guerre devient trop pesant pour la 
 monarchie. Si c'est la premiere vue qui la dirige, vous 
 pouvez avertir M. de Viry qu'il ne reussira pas; si ce 
 sont les deux autres, il doit croire que nous desirous tres 
 sincerement la paix; que nous nous piquons d'une pro- 
 bite exacte, et que par consequent il n'y a nul incon- 
 venient de nous faire des propositions. Yous observerez 
 que nous ne sommes pas les maitres de parler les 
 premiers, car nous avons des allies, dont il faudroit 
 avoir I'agrement, ce qui seroit tres longue et difficile; 
 mais ces memes alli(^s adopteraient par notre canal, les 
 propositions decentes, que nous pouvions leur faire. Au 
 reste ne croyez pas que la prise ou la non prise de la 
 Martinique puisse nous d(^ranger de notre systeme 
 politique. Je ne s^ais pas ce qui arrivera de cette
 
 1762.] NEWCASTLE TO IIARDWICKE. 99 
 
 opdration, mais je me suis arrang^, comme si les 
 Anglais en avaient fait la conqu^te. Adieu, mon clier 
 Ambassadeur ; je doute que j'aie rien 'X vous ajouter 
 Lundi a tout ce que je vous mande, je vous aime, et je 
 vous embrasse de tout mon coeur." 
 
 The copy of M. de Choiseul's despatch was sent to the 
 Earl of Hardwicke by the Duke of Newcastle, with the 
 following note from himself. 
 
 " Newcastle House, Wednesday, four o'clock. 
 "I AM sure you were as much concerned and disap- 
 pointed as myself, at the answer to Comte Viry. To 
 be sure, they are provoking, especially some passages in 
 M. de ChoiseuFs letter, that ' la dissension dans le 
 Ministere,' or ' notre impuissance de faire la guerre,' 
 may make us wish for peace. I find they have puzzled 
 
 my Lord B extremely. I could not, however, 
 
 avoid giving it as my opinion, both to his Lordship 
 and to the King afterwards, that we should not put a 
 final stop to this channel, for that I was concerned that 
 the German war was totally abandoned. This nation 
 was not in a condition to carry on the remaining war 
 one more year, and I think I can prove it. H(is) 
 
 M(ajesty) made no reply. Lord B was high; that 
 
 we must not lie down and submit, pointing out the 
 going on no longer in this channel or way, but the 
 Duke of Devonshire tells me since, that Lord Bute 
 told him that Lord Egremont should write an ofiice 
 letter to Comte Viry, complaining, I suppose, of the 
 
 H 2
 
 100 LORD BUTE'S SECRET NEGOCIATION [l762. 
 
 answer, and possibly sending to put a stop to the nego- 
 ciations, and his Lordship, would also write a letter 
 himself to Comte Viry. That may be to qualify the 
 oilier^ but as he did not do me the honour to mention 
 this to me, I can say nothing certain upon it. I wish 
 to know your Lordship's thoughts upon the whole." 
 
 Lord Bute's conduct, at this time, is an enigma. 
 While he was half inclined to put a stop to negocia- 
 tions in one quarter, he appears to have been equally 
 zealous to promote them in another. " He had or- 
 dered Sir Joseph Yorke," says Walpole, " to treat pri- 
 vately with the Court of Vienna, without the know- 
 ledge of the King of Prussia. To the confusion of the 
 favourite, the first news he had of any answer to 
 come, was from the Baron de Knyphausen, the King 
 of Prussia's minister here." '"' 
 
 This step, which Lord Bute took without the know- 
 ledge of his colleagues, was, in the belief that the 
 Court of Vienna would be more disposed to pacificatory 
 arrangements than any other powers,— a most egre- 
 gious blunder, considering the close relationship that 
 existed between Austria and France, and the bad 
 construction that would inevitably be put upon the 
 proceeding by Frederick of Prussia. Nor does this 
 message to Sir Joseph Yorke appear to have been 
 the sole imprudence that Lord Bute committed in the 
 matter; for it appears by the following letter, that 
 
 * Walpole's George the Third, i. 157.
 
 1762.] WITH VIENNA. 101 
 
 he wrote also to M. Alt, the minister of Hesse Cassel at 
 the Court of St. James's. 
 
 THE DUKE OF NEAYCASTLE TO THE EARL OF HARDWICKE. 
 
 " Newcastle House, Feb. 17, 1762. 
 " I SEND your Lordship, the very extraordinary letter 
 which I mentioned, from M. Alt, though perhaps you 
 may have had it in circulation. I think there never 
 was so imprudent a communication from a Secretary 
 of State, and sole minister, to a minister of a very 
 suspected ally, and who will not fail to acquaint both 
 the Courts of France and Vienna, that we are unable 
 to go on with the war." 
 
 On the 5th of February, the Duke of Bedford moved 
 a resolution in the House of Lords against carrying on 
 the war in Germany. His motion was rejected. 
 
 The nature of Lord Bute's communication to M. 
 Alt on this subject may be inferred from the next 
 paragraph in the Duke's letter. 
 
 "I think, also, with regard to his (Lord Bute's) 
 colleagues, myself in particular, there never was so 
 presumptuous, false, and oflfensive one. To assume to 
 himself the sole direction of the House of Lords. To 
 assert, contrary to fact, that that majority would reject 
 the Duke of Bedford's motion, no other way than by 
 a previous question, and as contrary to fact, to assert 
 afterwards that it was his Lordship that had induced the
 
 102 DUKE OF NEWCASTLE [l761. 
 
 majority to do it by the previous question. Is it possible 
 for me to go on with this man? " 
 
 The letters of the Duke of Newcastle, which have 
 appeared in the preceding pages, will have pointed out 
 some of the expedients by which the favourite sought to 
 drive his veteran rival from that office which he aspired 
 himself to fill. To show, by his correspondence, all the 
 affronts that, with this object, were put upon the poor 
 old Duke, would weary the reader's patience. One 
 more letter will suffice. It was written five days prior 
 to the declaration of war with Spain. 
 
 THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE TO THE EARL OF HARDWICKE. 
 
 " Claremont, Dec. 30,1761. 
 
 " I HAVE not heard one word from my Lord Bute, 
 in answer to my letter last Sunday ; — and, to my greater 
 surprise, I received this morning, at eight o'clock, the 
 enclosed extraordinary uninforming note from my Lord 
 Egremont, inclosing the draught of his answer to Count 
 Fuentes, which I immediately returned with the en- 
 closed letter, 
 
 " I have also, this morning, from my porter, a sum- 
 mons for a council, I think this day, upon what I know 
 not. Was ever any man in my station, or infinitely 
 less, treated with so much slight and contempt? When 
 I had wrote to the Mmister, particularly to be informed 
 when there was a council for the declaration of war, 
 when that letter was showed to the Secretary of State,
 
 17G1.J TO LORD HARDWICKE. 103 
 
 and when that Secretary sent me a note this moment, 
 and mentioned the declaration of war not being settled, 
 to have (if this shonld be the case) a Council fixed for 
 this very declaration of war, and to have no notice of 
 it from either Secretary's office, is an indignity, I 
 believe, which never before was put upon a minister of 
 my rank, station, age, and experience; add to all this, 
 promises to Portugal of six thousand men, and even 
 of money, and not one word said to me upon either, 
 except that His Majesty was graciously pleased to tell 
 me of the first {viz. the troops) but particularly said, 
 that there was no promise of money. Though your 
 l.ordship will find, by my Lord Bute's letter to General 
 Yorke,"' that even that was resolved also. I men- 
 tioned the six thousand men to my Lord Bute ; his Lord- 
 ship said, that they would not promise money without 
 speaking to me ; I answered, ' My Lord, Troops are 
 Afoiiei/," to which he replied, ' That is true.' Besides, 
 even Mr. Pitt, till towards the last, always had that 
 attention to me (and, I believe, to your Lordship) as 
 constantly to send me his draughts, with copies for 
 my own use, desiring me to make such alterations as I 
 should think proper, before he produced them at the 
 meeting of the King's Servants. These Ministers act 
 in a very different way. When the great and fatal 
 news came of the rupture with Spain, I was summoned 
 the next day but one to the meeting of the Lords ; 
 when I came to St. James's, the two Secretaries were 
 
 ') 
 
 * The Hon. Sir Joseph Yorke, K.B. third son of Lord Chancellor 
 Hardwicke, from the year 1751 to 1780 Minister at the Hague.
 
 104 DUKE OF NEWCASTLE [1761. 
 
 in with the King : when they came out, neither of them 
 said one word to me, by way of conversation, — every- 
 thing had been settled before; and at Council, your 
 Lordship saw how little passed, and since that, you 
 know all that has happened. 
 
 " Whether it was a presumption in me to write to 
 the Minister in the manner I did on Sunday, I don't 
 know; I am apt to think that that which was wrote 
 with quite a different view has displeased. The whole 
 proves to me what I have mentioned to your Lordship 
 before, that my Lord Bute's design is, that the first 
 concoction of business shall be settled only between his 
 Lordship, my Lord Egremont, and Mr. G. Grenville, 
 which is in fact by my Lord Bute only. In this situa- 
 tion I cannot, I will not, go on to execute the most 
 burthensome, the most difficult, the most responsible 
 office in the whole kingdom, without rightful concert, 
 confidence, and communication ; and that I desire my 
 Lord Bute may be told. I have my doubts whether 
 any the best instead of the worst behaviour towards 
 me, could or should induce me to expose myself any 
 longer in the station I am now in. I wish your Lord- 
 ship would say what you think proper, at least upon 
 that point which relates to the Council." 
 
 Unable, by personal slights, to drive his adversary 
 from liis post. Lord Bute, as Avill appear from the 
 letters which follow, now assailed him in his adminis- 
 trative capacity. The Duke of Newcastle had always 
 maintained tliat this nation was bound by every prin-
 
 1762.] TO LORD HARDWICKE. 105 
 
 ciple of honour, to continue subsidies to Prussia. 
 Hitherto the favourite had supported him in this 
 sentiment. When, on the 5th of February, the Duke 
 of Bedford moved in the House of Lords the discontinu- 
 ance of the war in Germany, Lord Bute opposed the 
 motion, on the ground that " the calling away the 
 troops now would be attended with disgrace, infamy, 
 and destruction." The following letter is characteristic 
 both of the public policy and the individual vacillation 
 of the veteran Minister. 
 
 THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE TO THE EARL OF HARDWICKE. 
 
 " April 10, 1762. 
 
 " Though I have many observations to make, upon 
 what passed at our last meeting, chiefly upon Mr. 
 Grenville's treatment of the Treasury, his arraigning 
 the German war, and his urging even the most absurd 
 impracticable method for reducing, or rather not pay- 
 ing, the money now actually due thereupon; and on 
 my Lord Bute's almost declaring that the Prussian 
 subsidy should not be given, — I should scarce have 
 troubled your Lordship with a letter upon them, if an 
 incident had not happened since, in which, I think, we 
 are all concerned, and myself very materially : nothing 
 less than the inserting in the minute some material 
 words, viz. ' in a proper and parliamentari/ method^ 
 which were never so much as mentioned ; but the view 
 is plain, to answer Mr. Grenville's view of not raising 
 the second million upon the vote of credit or sinking
 
 106 DUKE OF NEWCASTLE [l7G2. 
 
 fund, upon which your Lordship must remember no 
 resolution was taken, but left to future consideration; 
 as there was more than time sufficient for that purpose, 
 the minute was read over correctly by my Lord Egremont 
 word for word, and approved by everybody. If, after 
 that, such a material alteration is to be made, and our 
 names to be put to it without knowing one word of it, 
 I for one will attend no more of these meetings. This 
 is particularly hampering upon us in the Treasury, for I 
 don't understand what is meant by it ; though it must 
 have some meaning, or it would not have been inserted 
 — ' a proper and parliamentary metJiod /' The raising it 
 upon the vote of credit is as proper and parliamentary 
 method as any, if the vote of credit is extensive 
 enough to enable you to do it. Does ]\Ir. Grenville 
 mean to come to Parliament for this measure? I sup- 
 pose he does; but then he should consider where to 
 raise the money by some new loan this year. For my 
 part, / would not attempt it. I have promised to raise 
 no new money this year, and I will not break my word 
 for Mr. Grenville. But what is remarkable, no one man 
 has been so strong with me against raising more money 
 this year than this very Mr. Grenville. But, my dear 
 Lord, the whole is plain; Mr. Grenville, and perhaps 
 others, are determined to get rid of the German war 
 
 immediately [and of the D. of N tie too].* He 
 
 therefore loads it with all the imputations he can find 
 out, in order to render it so odious that nobody should 
 
 * The words within the brackets inserted by the second Lord 
 Hardwicke.
 
 1762.] TO LORD IIARDWICKE. 107 
 
 be for it; he sees that he cannot carry his point with 
 me, and therefore he tries to overrule me in my own 
 department; that, as to ecvecittion, he shall not do. 
 I am not sure that his view may not be to force 
 me out, and to set himself at the head of the Treasury.* 
 That, with all my heart; for if there is not a peace 
 (of which I don't see the least appearance this summer), 
 I am determined not to engage another year; let Mr. 
 Grenville carry on his maritime war as he pleases, and 
 much good may it do him. 
 
 " But to return to the question in the minute. I 
 must have it set right; I cannot consent to have my 
 name put to a thing I don't understand, much less 
 when I am to have no interpretation of it, and the 
 execution in consequence. When I see my Lord Bute 
 I shall tell him my thoughts. I don't care to write 
 about it to his Lordship, much less to Lord Egre- 
 mont, to have it scanned by Mr. Grenville. 
 
 " If your Lordship agrees with me as to the fact, of 
 which I am certain, and as to the consequences which 
 I apprehend, you will be so good as to let me have 
 your thoughts; or if accidentally you should see Lord 
 Bute, I wish you would talk to him upon it. . . . 
 
 " I hear a messenger from Petersburgh arrived yes- 
 terday. I know not one word of what he brought. I 
 perceive Sir Joseph f knew nothing of his passing by. 
 Indeed that mystery between Ministers obstructs busi- 
 ness extremely, and never was practised before. But 
 
 * Note by second Lord Hardwicke. " It certainly was the view." 
 t Yorke.
 
 108 DUKE OF NEWCASTLE [1762. 
 
 we deal too much in mystery throughout. I will add 
 only one thought upon our foreign business. It should 
 be determined forthwith whether we are to give the 
 Prussian subsidy or not. The King of Prussia has 
 been promised it. He ought to know in time whether 
 that promise is to be fulfilled or not. I spoke two words 
 to my Lord Bute upon it. I conjured him to think 
 seriously before he refused it. AH the answer I could 
 get was, that the affair was still open." 
 
 THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE TO THE EARL OF HARDWICKE. 
 
 " Newcastle House, May 3, 1762. 
 
 "I AM under the greatest uneasiness and distress. 
 The affair, I think, is over. I talked it fully with my 
 Lord Barrington, who wrote a paper to prove that it 
 was impossible for the Treasury to go on without a 
 million in addition to that of the vote of credit; not 
 to be put in the vote of credit, but to be voted in the 
 Committee of Supply. 
 
 " I went to Court at one o'clock, but my Lord Bute 
 was gone. They said he was not well. When I went 
 into the closet, I told the King I came to know his 
 Majesty's command about the message. His Majesty 
 seemed not to understand me. The King then went 
 immediately, of his own accord, to the vote of credit. 
 ' You will have but a million, my Lord.' ' Sir, that 
 will not do.' I have discoursed with my Lord Bar- 
 rington, who says we must shut up the Exchequer, 
 if we have not more granted. His Majesty persevered.
 
 1762.] TO LORD HARDWICKE. 109 
 
 and I told him, since that was so, his Majesty must put 
 it in a way that his pleasure should be carried into 
 execution, meaning that myself and my Lord B(arring- 
 ton) could not. 
 
 " This being the case, it is most probable that I shall 
 be obliged to resign on Wednesday next." 
 
 FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME. 
 
 " Newcastle House, Monday, May 10, 1762. 
 " This day has produced some extraordinary discove- 
 ries, all tending to prove the resolution taken by my 
 Lord Bute to force me out immediately. The King, 
 who ivas very gracious the other day, said not one word 
 to me upon my own subject^ — a proof the party is taken. 
 His ]\Iajesty talked very oddly about the borough 
 Tiverton; that it was a Court borough ; but, thank 
 God, that is over, and I hope Mr, Gore chose.* Lord 
 Bute Avent early away from Court to avoid the Duke of 
 Devonshire and me. But, what is the more extraor- 
 dinary, I send your Lordship direct proof, under Mar- 
 tin's own hand, of such a behaviour in my Lord Bute to 
 me in my office as hardly any gentleman acted towards 
 another, let him be ever so insignificant. For a first 
 Minister to give queries in writing to a Secretary of 
 the Treasury, relating to facts to be known only in 
 the Treasury, which facts were to determine his Lord- 
 ship as to measures to be taken by the Government, 
 without the participation or knoAvledge of the first 
 * Mr. Gore was elected for Tiverton.
 
 110 DUKE OF NEWCASTLE [l762. 
 
 Lord of the Treasury, Minister in rank equal to him- 
 self, and perhaps equal in responsibility, is an indignity 
 never heard of before, or ever to be acquiesced in 
 by me. The guilt of that pitiful secretary needs no 
 explanation; the point now remaining to be considered 
 is the time where, and the manner how, I should quit; 
 as to the time, I should think about the rising of the 
 Parliament. As to the manner, I would put it upon 
 the last offensive act of overruling, or rather in med- 
 dling with the business of my office, and engaging my 
 colleagues and my secretary in open opposition to me. 
 This the Duke of Cumberland approves. I have great 
 reason to be satisfied with his Royal Highness. I have 
 asked one favour of him, I ask of all my friends, and 
 that is this, not to quit their employments, but to let 
 everybody know, that what I do is with their approba- 
 tion, and with some, by their advice, and that tJiey shall 
 continue to act with me, in the same conduct as when I 
 was in business, or otherwise I am to be the scape-goat 
 for the whole. The Duke says the Duke of Devonshire 
 will go no more to Council. I should think my friends 
 should cease doing that when I resign." 
 
 Upon the above letter the second Lord Hardwicke 
 observes, " It is immaterial to ruminate on such old 
 stories now, but the Duke of Newcastle when he quitted 
 should either have got his friends to resign too, or 
 retired a])solutely, like L(ord) T(ownshen)d." 
 
 Burke, in his " Thoughts on the Present Discontents,"
 
 17(5-2.] TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. Ill 
 
 offers the following defence of their continuing in office 
 after the retirement of their chief: — 
 
 " To the great Whig families it was extremely dis- 
 agreeable, and seemed almost unnatural to oppose the 
 administration of a Prince of the House of Brunswick. 
 Day after day they hesitated and doubted and lingered, 
 expecting that other counsels would take place, and 
 were slow to be persuaded that all which had been 
 done by the cabal was the effect, not of humour, but of 
 system." """ 
 
 DUKE OF NEWCASTLE TO THE MARQUESS OF ROCKINGHAM. 
 
 "May 19, 1762. 
 " .... I WAS this day at Court. His Majesty was 
 barely civil ; would not do a very right thing in the 
 post-office at the recommendation of my Lord Bess- 
 boro' f and Mr. Hampden. I desired the King's leave 
 to attend his Majesty some day next week to settle my 
 private account, and that I hoped his Majesty would 
 allow me to retire from my employment a day or two 
 after the Parliament rose. His Majesty asked me, 
 whether I should go to Claremont. I said, ' Yes ; I 
 might afterwards go to other places.' The King did 
 
 * Burke's Works, ii. 238. 
 
 t William Ponsonby, second Earl of Bessborough, married in 1739 
 Lady Caroline Cavendish, eldest daughter of William, third Duke of 
 Devonshire. He w^as at this time one of the Postmasters General; an 
 office which he resigned five months later.
 
 112 DUKE OF NEWCASTLE [l762. 
 
 not drop one word of concern at my leaving him, nor 
 even made me a polite compliment, after near fifty 
 years' service, and devotion to the interest of his Eoyal 
 family. I will say nothing more of myself, but that I 
 believe never any man was so dismissed. But all this 
 
 puts me the more in the right. C '"' told the Duke 
 
 of Devonshire that the resolution was taken not to ask 
 me to stay." 
 
 Writing on the 21st to Lord Hardwicke, the Duke of 
 Newcastle says; 
 
 " The Duke of Devonshire told me this day as the 
 greatest secret, that the King told him he would have 
 a chapter of the Garter, and that he would give his 
 brother Prince William one, and my Lord Bute the 
 other. f They time it well, and I am glad of it. The 
 chapter is to be held on Thursday next, the day after 
 my resignation. This lays me under the greatest 
 difficulty. I am absolutely determined to go that day 
 to Claremont, to avoid all speculations about the day 
 after. / am afraid this will be thought want of respect 
 in an old knight, to be absent at the election of a King's 
 brother. If that should be your Lordship's opinion, I 
 must come to town again on Thursday morning, and 
 return immediately after the election to Claremont. 
 
 * Probably Mr. Calcraft, the army agent. 
 
 t When this disposal of the vacant garters became known to Prince 
 Henry, the liveliest of the King's brothers, he said, " I suppose Mr. 
 Mackenzie (Lord Bute's brother) and I shall have the green ribands."
 
 17G2.] TO LORD IIARDWICKE. 113 
 
 I don't like tlie aiipearance of assisting so soon after 
 my resignation at Lord Bute's election, but that is of 
 no great moment." 
 
 There is no evidence to show that the Duke of New- 
 castle attended the investiture of the new knights. 
 But he was present at their installation, which took 
 place at Windsor, on the 22nd of September. " The 
 pomp was great; the King, Queen, and all the Royal 
 family were there, except Princess Amelia." 
 
 " His Grace (of Newcastle), Lord Temple and Lord 
 Bute," writes Walpole, " met last Wednesday at the 
 installation of the last. The first, when he performed 
 the ceremony, embraced Lord Bute ; Lord Temple sat 
 next him at dinner, but they did not exchange a 
 syllable; and yet I do not esteem habitual virulence 
 more than habitual dissimulation." * This incident 
 appears to have furnished a subject for the pencil of 
 the caricaturists of the day. In a letter of the 28th 
 of September the Duke of Newcastle observes to Lord 
 Hardwicke: ^^ As to my kissing my Lord Bide at the 
 ceremony^ it is a necessary part of it, and, determined 
 as I am to have nothing to do with his Lordship as 
 Minister, I am the more disposed to show all sorts of 
 civilities as a gentleman. I own I don't understand 
 any of these prints and burlesques; I am too dull to 
 taste them, and if they are not decyphered for me, I 
 could not in the least guess, very often, what they 
 mean. I don't yet know what part I have in them, and 
 
 * To Sir H. Mann, Sept. 26, 1762. 
 VOL. L I
 
 114 DUKE OF NEWCASTLE [l7C2. 
 
 as little what is designed for your Lordshijo. / detest 
 the whole thing." 
 
 Shortly after the decease of Frederick, Prince of 
 Wales, " The Duke/' as he was called, par excellence^ 
 had been on distant terms with the Duke of Newcastle, 
 who had espoused the interests of the Princess Dowager, 
 on the Regency question, to the prejudice of His Royal 
 Highnesses pretensions. But shortly prior to the date 
 of the previous letter, the Duke of Cumberland was 
 reconciled to the Duke of Newcastle, and became more 
 immediately identified with that section of the Whigs, 
 of which his Grace was the recognized leader. 
 
 THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE TO H.R.H. THE DUKE OF 
 
 CUMBERLAND. 
 
 "May 26, 1762. 
 
 " His Majesty was pleased yesterday to express him- 
 self more graciously to me than he had done for some 
 time past. 
 
 " The King was afterwards pleased to speak more 
 directly to the Duke of Devonshire, and said that he 
 knew what I had done for the service of his family — 
 that I had prejudiced my fortune by it; and therefore 
 he wished the Duke of Devonshire would sound me, 
 whether I would take a pension in any shape, privately 
 or publicly, in any manner I should like. 
 
 " His Majesty was this day very gracious also. I 
 told the King I came to resign my employment, and 
 return his Majesty my thanks for his gracious offer to
 
 1702.] TO DUKE OF CUMBERLAND. 115 
 
 me yesterday, and more particularly for what he had 
 said to the Duke of Devonshire. That as I never served 
 his Majesty nor his Royal predecessors with any view 
 to the emolument of my employments, I was determined 
 when I was out of his service, not to be any charge 
 to him. That if my fortune had suffered by my zeal 
 for his Majesty's Royal Family, it was my honour, 
 my glory, and my pride ; and the gracious sense his 
 Majesty had expressed of it was all the reward I desired. 
 The King seemed to receive it very graciously ; pressed 
 me again to accept his offer, which his Majesty said he 
 looked upon as a debt owing to me. To which I made 
 the answer I have mentioned above. The King was 
 pleased, at parting, to say that, he could depend on my 
 support, to which I made a bow, and said nothing. I 
 have been so much misunderstood on both sides of that 
 question, that I thought it was best to be absolutely 
 silent; as I had twice declared to the King, that I could 
 make no promises, nor enter into any engagements 
 upon that head." 
 
 H.R.H. THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND TO THE DUKE OF 
 
 NEWCASTLE. 
 
 " Windsor, Great Lodge, May 26, 17G2. 
 
 " My Lord Duke of Newcastle, — 
 
 " I return you many thanks for the early communica- 
 tion of this great event, concerned as I and every honest 
 man must be at it. Yet I have some pleasure to see 
 the King has been pleased to show the sense he and 
 
 I 2
 
 116 LETTER TO DUKE OF NEWCASTLE. [l762. 
 
 all his family ought to have of your long, expensive, 
 
 and most useful services. But I must take the freedom 
 
 to add, that I most heartily rejoice at the manner in 
 
 which you received the King's good intentions. Your 
 
 friends must like it, your enemies will not dare to blame 
 
 it. We shall meet at the Chapter to-morrow. If court 
 
 should be over in time, perhaps you may like to call 
 
 upon me afterwards, if not, the Lodge is not so far from 
 
 Claremont, but that I may flatter myself with your 
 
 company sometimes, for we have become spectators not 
 
 actors, and have leisure to talk over past transactions, 
 
 if precluded from the knowledge of fresh events. I hope 
 
 you have no doubt but that I shall have the same regard 
 
 for your services to the public, whether you are in place 
 
 or out; and I must add that the manner of your going 
 
 out has more decency and dignity than I have seen in 
 
 my period. 
 
 " I remain, 
 
 " Your very affectionate friend, 
 
 " William."
 
 17(>2j DUKE OF NEWCASTLE'S RESIGNATION. 117 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 DUKE OF Newcastle's resignation. — character of sir franois 
 
 DASHWOOD. NEG0CIATI0N3 FOR PEACE. CHARACTER OF DUG DE 
 
 NIVERNAIS. CAPTURE OF THE HAVANNAH. HENRY FOX. — COURT 
 
 PERSECUTION OF THE WHIG PARTY. DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE'S DIS- 
 MISSAL. — CHARACTERS OF LORDS ROCKINGHAM, KINNOUL, LINCOLN, 
 
 AND ASHBURNHAM, AND DUKE OF RUTLAND. PROPOSED ALLIANCE 
 
 AMONG THE WHIGS. DISMISSAL OF WHIG LORD LIEUTENANTS AND 
 
 CUSTOM-HOUSE OFFICERS. LORD MANSFIELD. 
 
 On the Duke of Newcastle's resignation, Lord Bute 
 became first Lord of the Treasury, Mr. Grenville,""Se- 
 cretary of State, and Sir Francis Dashwoodj Chancellor 
 of "the Exchequer. This last appointment was not a 
 happy one. Sir Francis was highly eccentric and 
 grossly immoral. In his youth he went to Russia 
 dressed in the costume of Charles the Twelfth of Sweden, 
 in the hopes of captivating the heart of the Czarina. 
 After leading a life free even for Italy, he returned to 
 England, when he openly set at defiance every principle 
 of decency and decorum. It has been urged that the 
 public service would suffer if the private character of 
 its servants were too narrowly examined. But no plea of 
 state expediency could be pleaded for such an appoint- 
 ment as that of Dashwood. His capacity was on a par 
 with his propriety. His knowledge of accounts, if we
 
 118 DUKE OF NEWCASTLE'S RESIGNATION. [I7«'i. 
 
 \ may believe his contemporaries, was confined to the 
 I reckoning of tavern bills, while to him " a sum of five 
 figures was an impenetrable secret." He had a coarse 
 style of speaking, which had hitherto passed current 
 for unadorned good sense; but no sooner did the new 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer make his financial state- 
 ment than the illusion was dispelled, and his budget was 
 received with loud shouts of contemptuous laughter. 
 
 Scarcely had the favourite been two months installed 
 in his new office than he invited the old Duke to return 
 to the administration from which he had so lately driven 
 him. In an interview with Lord Hardwicke, on the 
 28th of July, Lord Bute said, "He was glad to see 
 the Duke of Newcastle look so well, and in such good 
 spirits ; that he had been sorry to hear reports that he 
 was uneasy." Lord Hardwicke replied, that " He knew 
 no grounds for such reports. He (the Duke) might 
 possibly not be easy respecting the public, but that he 
 never knew him in better health and cheerfulness per- 
 sonally in his life." Lord Bute said it had given him 
 a great deal of uneasiness that his Grace had thought it 
 necessary for him to leave the administration as he did; 
 that he thought he could have gone on with his Grace 
 longer and better than with anybody else ; for there was 
 always a good humour about him, and he had not the 
 starts and emotions that some others were liable to; 
 that if he (the Duke) should think any office proper 
 for his rank and age the King would most readily 
 confer it." 
 
 The next conciliatory overtures were made tlirough
 
 1702.] CHARACTER OF DUG DE NIVERNAIS. 119 
 
 the medium of Lord Lyttleton, — first, in a conference 
 with Lord H.irdwicke, and after in two direct communi- 
 cations with the Duke of Newcastle himself. In these 
 interviews with the ex-minister, Lord Lyttleton offered 
 the Duke the post of Lord President of the Council. 
 
 " The conference ended," said the Duke, " with mj 
 resolution to accept no employment, nor to return to 
 the Council. To come," said his Grace, " to support 
 my Lord Bute and his measures, to have the odium 
 thrown upon me, would not be a part much approved 
 in the nation, and very improper for myself." 
 
 The foreign negociations of the preceding year were 
 resumed in August 1762, and as a pledge of reciprocal 
 sincerity it was agreed on both sides that envoys of the 
 first distinction should be exchanged by the French and 
 English Courts. Accordingly in September, the Duke 
 of Bedford went to Paris, and the Due de Nivernais 
 repaired to London, furnished respectively with full 
 powers to adjust the preliminaries of peace. 
 
 Louis Jules Barbon, Due de Nivernais, or Duke 
 Nevernew^ as the London mob soon learned to call him, 
 was remarkable for his high birth, his poetical talents, 
 his social accomplishments, and his personal ugliness. 
 He was the French representative of the ancient and 
 illustrious house of Mancini, was a Peer of France, a 
 Grandee of Spain, a Roman Baron, and a Prince of the 
 Empire. The fastidious Chesterfield held him up as a 
 model of politeness. He spoke several languages fluently, 
 and was the author of many trifles both in verse and 
 prose, which were popular enough at the time to excite
 
 120 CHARACTER OF DUG DE NIVERNAIS. [17«2 
 
 the raptures of the Chevalier D'Eon,* and the spleen of 
 Madame G^offrin.f By his efforts to be universally agree- 
 able, " la coquetterie de plaire a tout le monde," Niver- 
 nais laboured to indemnify himself for the unkindliness 
 of Nature in giving him a most unpromising exterior. :j: 
 He was the meagre Frenchman of Hogarth's pictures 
 and Smollett's novels. On his landing at Dover, a 
 sailor, who having been a prisoner in France was fami- 
 liar with the Duke's person, pointed him out to the 
 crowd as the fattest Frenchman he had ever seen. And 
 this nautical pleasantry was relished by no one more 
 than the Duke himself. With all his advantages of birth 
 and manners, the Duke was by no means a fortunate 
 man. His health obliged him to quit his original 
 profession of arms. His legation at Berlin, in 1756, 
 was a failure — " It was thought," said Voltaire, " that 
 an Ambassador who was at once Peer, Duke, and poet, 
 
 * " Le Seigneur dans toutes ses ambassades a toujours paru comme 
 Anacreon couronne de myrthe et de roses, et chantant les plaisirs au 
 sein de ses infirmites, et des plus penibles travaux." May there not 
 be a touch of satire in this compliment : — 
 
 " Oft I'm by the women told, 
 Poor Anacreon thou grow'st old." 
 
 t Madame Geoffrin, who belonged to a rival coterie, calls the 
 Duke, " Guerrier manque, politique manque, enfin manque partout." 
 But this lady's epigrams never want point, however they may lack 
 truth. 
 
 X " If," said St. Simon to a Spanish sentry, who had been repri- 
 manded by the Duke de Medina Cell for not presenting arms to his 
 Grace " If, friend, you see any one exactly like a monkey at 
 Court, in future, present arms to him, for you may be sure he is a 
 nobleman of the highest order."
 
 1762.] CAPTURE OF THE HAVANNAII. 121 
 
 would flatter the vanity and the tastes of Frederic." 
 But the philosophic monarch of Prussia was at that 
 time in no yerj gracious mood with France, and vented 
 his spleen by ridiculing its representative. Under 
 Louis the Sixteenth, the Duke forfeited the favour which 
 he had enjoyed under that monarch's grandfather. 
 
 His domestic joys were as transient as his court fa- 
 vours. His second wife, the Comtesse de Rocliefort, whom 
 he tenderly loved, died a few days after their marriage. 
 Of his sons-in-law, one, the Comte de Gisors, fell at Cre- 
 veldt, the other, the Due de Brisac, was torn in pieces 
 by a revolutionary mob. He himself was stripped of 
 his hereditary distinctions and his fortune, and thrown 
 into prison. The Abbe Barthdlemi, on that occasion of 
 titles being abolished, said, "M. de Nivernais n'est plus 
 Due k la Cour, mais il Test encore au Parnasse." 
 
 But even in the dungeon his desire to please did not 
 forsake him. The ex-Duke, now " Citizen Mancini," 
 wrote verses, even when momentarily expecting to be 
 summoned to the scaffold. His good fortune — if to 
 survive wealth, honours, and friends, can be so called — 
 prevailed to the end. He survived the " Reign of 
 Terror," and died in 1798, at the advanced age of 
 eighty-two, writing on the day of his decease a humor- 
 ous epistle to his friend and doctor M. Caille. 
 
 On the 29th of September, intelligence reached Eng- 
 land of the fall of the Havannah. The siege had been 
 obstinate and protracted, but on the 12th of August, the 
 era of the succession of the House of Brunswick to the 
 throne, and the day on which the Prince of Wales,
 
 122 DUKE OF NEWCASTLE [l762. 
 
 afterwards George the Fourth, was born, that important 
 city surrendered to the British arms. 
 
 " We have dwelt," says Burke, in his " Annual Re- 
 gister," " on this memorable' siege, a longer time than 
 we have on our plan allowed to such transactions ; 
 because it was, without question, in itself the most 
 considerable, and in its consequences the most decisive 
 conquest we have made since the beginning of the war ; 
 and because in no operation were the courage, steadi- 
 ness, and perseverance of the British troops, and the 
 conduct of their leaders more conspicuous. The acqui- 
 sition was a military advantage of the highest class ; it 
 was equal to the greatest naval victory, by its effects 
 on the enemy's marine, and in the plunder it equalled 
 the produce of a national subsidy." 
 
 THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE TO THE EARL OF HARDWICKE. 
 
 "Sept. 30, 1762. 
 " I MUST begin by first most sincerely congratulating 
 your Lordship that our fears for the Havannah are now 
 over, by the surrender of that place with eleven men 
 of war of the line, three more sunk, and one million and 
 a half sterling in money,* of which I had the first 
 account last night, from the postmaster at Cobham, upon 
 Captain Hervey'sf going through there with the news, 
 
 * The plunder exceeded three millions sterling. 
 
 t The Hon. Augustus John Hervey, afterwards Earl of Bristol, 
 third son of the celebrated Lord Hervey. He was born in 1724; 
 entered the navy at an early age, formed part of Commodore Keppel's 
 squadron in 1759, and was under his immediate command at the
 
 1702] TO LORD HARDWICKE. 123 
 
 and in a moment after, by a very obliging letter from 
 the Duke, enclosing my Lord Albemarle's to him, of 
 both which I send your Lordship copies; as also of a 
 letter which I had this morning from my Lord Albe- 
 marle. This event is of such real importance to the 
 public, especially at this time, as you will see by the 
 request of this letter, and does so much honour to the 
 memory of those ivho jJrojected and directed it, iti which 
 nobody can take a greater share than myself, and also to 
 those who have had the execution of it, that I must own 
 I have never known any one public success which has 
 given me more real joy and satisfaction. I enclose also 
 my Lord Egremont's dry note, and my d^y answer." 
 
 VISCOUNT ROYSTON TO DR. BIRCH. 
 
 " Dear Birch, " Wimple, Sept. so, 1762. 
 
 "Lord Hardwicke received, this morning, by a 
 
 Havannah. He was commanded by Keppel to cannonade the Moro 
 Castle. In the heat of the action, while his ship was strewed with 
 dead and dying, he wrote as follows to the Commodore. The letter, 
 which is in my possession, is unsealed and written in pencil upon the 
 back of the private signals. 
 
 " I have the misfortune to be aground. Pray send a frigate to 
 drop a bower off, and send the end of the cable on board here. We 
 are luckily in a good line for our fire on the fort ; but the smoke is so 
 great that it makes it impossible to see the effect we have had, or are 
 likely to have ; nor can tell when the army will advance. Often 
 duller, and ever yours, *' A. Hervey." 
 
 A portrait of Captain Hervey by Sir Joshua Reynolds is in the 
 possession of the Corporation of Bury St. Edmunds, and is placed by 
 them in the public library. The background of the portrait represents 
 the attack on the Moro Castle.
 
 124 DUKE OF CUMBERLAND [l7G2. 
 
 flying packet from Mr. Cleveland, the great news of 
 our success at the Havannah, upon which I most heartily 
 congratulate you. I agree with you, that the impres- 
 sion of such a blow must render the Court of Spain more 
 tractable in the negociation, but how far, on the other 
 hand, it may increase the dislike at home to a pacific 
 system, I cannot pretend to determine. The nation in 
 general will expect something very advantageous in the 
 future treaty with Spain, in exchange for such a con- 
 quest ; and it is well, if the old cry of Take and Hold, 
 is not revived on the occasion. The uninterrupted 
 course of prosperity which has attended our arms, in 
 enterprises the most difficult and important, is scarce 
 to be paralleled in history, and will make this era in 
 
 our annals a most splendid one." 
 
 rr -sc- % % % 
 
 The following congratulatory letter must be read 
 with all due allowance for the writer's partiality. 
 
 H.R.H. THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND TO THE EARL OF 
 
 ALBEMARLE. 
 
 " Windsor, Great Lodge, Oct. 2, 1 IQZ. 
 
 " My dear Albemarle, 
 
 " You have made me the happiest man existing; nay, 
 you have almost repaid me for the severe anxieties I 
 have gone through for these last three months, besides 
 the disagreeable and tedious time your absence gave, 
 without rellection of what you were to go through. 
 Upon the whole, no joy can equal mine, and I strut
 
 1702.] TO LORD ALBEMARLE. 125 
 
 and plume myself as if it was I that had taken the 
 Havannah. In short, you have done your king and 
 country the most material service that any military 
 man has ever done since we were a nation, and you 
 have shown yourself an excellent officer; all this, I 
 knew, was in you, but now the world sees it, and 
 owns it. 
 
 " Militarily speaking, I take your siege to have been 
 the most difficult that has been since the invention of 
 artillery. Sixty-eight days in that climate is alone 
 prodigious; without any partiality to you, 'tis a great 
 action in itself, setting aside the immense service you 
 have done your country. I am so wrapped up still in 
 your share of honour and glory, that I don't yet quite 
 feel that pleasure I have to come to, as an Englishman, 
 and an old soldier. 
 
 " Pray make my most sincere compliments to both 
 your brothers. I hope, before you receive this, they 
 will both be recovered. The storm of the Moro does 
 William's heart and head great honour. "^^ 
 
 " I must thank you for your kind and informing 
 letters. Your difficulties my heart shared with you; 
 but, I must say, I grudged even myself the trouble 
 you were at, in the middle of all your business and 
 ill-health, to give me that satisfaction. I am sorry to 
 say, the Minister f is not quite so much obliged to 
 
 * Major-General the Hon. William Keppel took the Moro Castle, 
 upon which the town depentied, by storm, but did all in his power to 
 stop the further effusion of blood. 
 
 t Lord Bute.
 
 126 LETTER TO LORD ALBEMARLE. [l70'i. 
 
 you, for you have removed the peace. By this time, 
 you know the change of hands, and great as you and 
 the army have made us appear abroad, as little are 
 we at home, by unavoidable divisions that increase 
 daily. You may judge the part I take when I tell 
 you that * Permis,' "' is, once a fortnight, for two 
 hours at least, in the library here; you will see too 
 much of all this at your return, and it is an improper 
 subject for a letter. The King was very gracious 
 to me yesterday, and seemed to allow you and family 
 the merit you and they deserve ; — I won't answer for 
 the reward.-f 
 
 " We make you as rich as Croesus, J I hope it is so ; 
 if not, it is the least matter ; health and owned merit 
 are sufficient ingredients for happiness, so much the 
 better if you add wealth to it. Brighton illuminated 
 his thatched church, and all Egham was on fire, and 
 even Bishopsgate had its burn-fires and illuminations. I 
 hear London, the City especially, were nobly lighted up. 
 
 * " Permis," the name given at Court to the Duke of Newcastle, 
 who always prefaced his visits to the apartment of the Princesses with 
 " Est il permis ? " In his correspondence he speaks of himself under 
 this soubriquet. 
 
 t " My nephew, Mr. Keppell," says Walpole, " is made Bishop 
 of Exeter. How reverently ancient this makes me sound. Lady 
 Albemarle ! there is a happy mother ! Honours, military and eccle- 
 Biastic, raining upon her children. She owns she has felt intoxicated. 
 The moment the King had complimented the Duke of Cumberland on 
 Lord Albemarle's success, the Duke stepped across to Lady Albemarle 
 and said, ' If it was not in the drawing-room, I would kiss you.' He 
 is full as transported as she is." — To Sir H. Mann^ i. 119. 
 
 \ So spelt in the original.
 
 1702.] MINISTERIAL DIFFICULTIES. 127 
 
 " Keep yourself well, and return to us soon. It has 
 been a long absence for two friends like us ; may it be 
 the last. 
 
 " Ever your hearty and sincerely affectionate friend, 
 
 " William." 
 
 The hint thrown out by the Duke of Cumberland, 
 in the preceding letter, that Lord Bute did not feel 
 obliged to Lord Albemarle for the conquest of the 
 Havannah, will receive elucidation from a letter that 
 will shortly appear, but which itself requires a few 
 preliminary observations. 
 
 Short as had been Lord Bute's tenure of the ministe- 
 rial throne, it had not proved quite the bed of roses 
 he anticipated. The peace, unpopular in itself, be- 
 came doubly so from his being considered its author. 
 The meeting of Parliament was at hand. The Treaty 
 was to be carried through the House of Commons. A 
 purchased majority was the only mode in which this 
 object could be effected. To whom was the task of 
 bribing members to be entrusted? Dash wood was not 
 fit for the business, and Grenville would not under- 
 take it unless the recipients of the bribes were to look 
 up to him as their patron. In this dilemma Lord Bute 
 tried to gain over Henry Fox, the pupil of the Whig 
 minister Sir Eobert Walpole, the private friend and 
 political adherent of the Whig Duke of Cumberland, 
 and the avowed opponent of the Leicester House faction. 
 The favourite's efforts were successful. Grenville was 
 sent back to the Admiralty very much against his Avill.
 
 128 HENRY FOX [l762. 
 
 Fox, in consideration of a peerage in perspective, con- 
 sented to take the management of the Commons, and to 
 secure their assent to the peace, by any means, fair or 
 foul. 
 
 So eager had Fox been to accept Lord Bute's invi- 
 tation, that he closed the bargain before he had given 
 any intimation of his intentions to the Duke of Cum- 
 berland, or any other of his political associates. 
 
 The following letter appears to have been put forth 
 as a feeler. 
 
 THE RIGHT HONOURABLE HENRY FOX TO H.R.H. THE DUKE 
 
 OF CUMBERLAND. 
 
 " Sir " Wednesday night, Sept. 29, 1762. 
 
 " I most cordially wish your Royal Highness joy of 
 Lord Albemarle's success, to hear the particulars of 
 which letter, after I shall have seen Lord Bute to- 
 morrow, I stay in town to-night. 
 
 " Yesterday, peace was thought desperate, at which 
 time Rigby saw Lord Bute, and found him to appear- 
 ance firm and not at all frightened. At noon a mes- 
 senger came to Nivernais, and to the Ministers, and 
 some letters from the Duke of Bedford, which brought 
 all that had been asked, or could be expected, and 
 peace was thought certain, and so declared by Niver- 
 nais and Lord Bute. I went to dinner with the 
 Duchess of Bedford in this opinion, and had my chaise 
 at the door to carry me out of town as soon as dinner 
 sliould 1)0 over. I found Lord Bute with the Duchess.
 
 17G2.] TO DUKE OF CUMBERLAND. 129 
 
 He was excessively glad to hear I was there, and sent 
 to me. He began with telling me how much he had 
 wished, and how glad he was, to have half an hour's 
 conversation with me, hoping he should learn your 
 Royal Highness's sentiments on this peace, which he 
 had heard were changed. ' If the K — were now to ask 
 you, what did I think would be your opinion?' For 
 it imported his Majesty to know men's opinion, and no 
 person's more than your Royal Highness's. But first 
 he would show me the Peace, and tell me the state of 
 the present case with regard to it. Had he seen me 
 yesterday morning, he should have told me our enemies 
 would not make peace; he must now, he was afraid, 
 say, that our friends could not. He then showed me 
 the Peace, with its Articles relating to Spain and 
 Portugal, as well as France, and the strongest assu- 
 rances from France of Spain's consent in a week. Tn 
 all these I think there were no amendments to be 
 wished, but such as were merely verbal, and such as 
 it cannot but be supposed the French would make 
 as soon as asked. But, besides some immaterial ob- 
 jections made by G. Grenville, Avhich he had been to 
 tire Lord Bute with this morning, he at last declared 
 that he coidd not bring himself to sign any Peace, 
 without stipulating some equivalent for the Havannah, 
 which, by the way, he at that time thought we should 
 not take ; and he talked of sending for everybody that 
 could be got to the Cabinet Council, nommement^ the 
 Duke of Newcastle, Lord Hardwicke, and the Duke of 
 VOL. L K
 
 130 HENRY FOX [1762. 
 
 Devonshire. ' You have no right to send to the two 
 first,' says Lord Bute, ' and neither of the three would 
 come.' In short, Grenville, frightened out of his wits, 
 without knowing what compensation to ask, still in- 
 sisted that he would sign no Peace without one. Lord 
 Egremont, I hear, is as bad, or worse. ' What do you 
 think of this, Mr. Fox?' 'I think, my Lord, that you 
 have been very unlucky in your choice.' He asked 
 Grenville whether he had any plan to lay before the 
 King for carrying on a war, when he should tell his 
 Majesty that he would not sign the Peace; for he. 
 Lord Bute, assured him he had none. G. Grenville 
 had none, but said, he was sure France would agree 
 to this if asked (which your Royal Highness sees was 
 the business of Spain, not France). My Lord Bute 
 desired him not to tell the King that ; for if it came to 
 speculation, he had a right to declare his, and should 
 tell the King that he was as fully persuaded that France 
 would not, as Mr. Grenville was that she would agree 
 to it. Lord Bute then returned to his question about 
 your Royal Highness. I told him that your Royal 
 Highness always was and would be very sensible of the 
 King's civilities, for you loved him ; and that I believed 
 your Royal Highness had rather any Minister made a 
 good peace than his Lordship; but I was persuaded 
 you had rather even his Lordship made it than that 
 it should not be made at all. 
 
 " I was all this time so intent on finding out, if 
 possible, what your Royal Highness wished to know, 
 that I cannot be mistaken when I say, that he either
 
 17G2.] TO DUKE OF CUMBERLAND. 131 
 
 disguised his sentiments admirably, or has, as yet, no 
 thoughts of treating.* I brought the Duke of New- 
 castle's name in often; and, when I could do it very 
 naturally, I directly asked him, if there was any 
 tendency on either side to unite. He answered, ' None 
 in the world; and if there had been such a report, 
 there was not the least ground for it.' I asked the 
 same as to Pitt and him. He answered, 'None;' and 
 added, that the rancour and aversion of Pitt and Lord 
 Temple was as great as possible. 
 
 " I observed with astonishment, and so had Lord 
 Gower and E,igby, who had talked with him before I 
 came, that he seemed cool, and really at his ease, and, 
 now and then, even jocose in talking of his own 
 precious Cabinet Council. 
 
 " Upon reflection, sir, though I believe he has no 
 thought of treating, yet I believe that he must, and 
 will be driven to it. If that should be the case, and 
 that the King tries to make your Royal Highness the 
 mediator, it will be much more worthy of you, than the 
 character of the head of an opposition. Give me leave 
 to add to what I said yesterday, these two considera- 
 tions : — If his Majesty must have a sole Minister made 
 in the room of his favourite, no share of administra- 
 tion left with that favourite, his Majesty is lost, for as 
 long as he sits upon the throne ; and however it might 
 please people now, on reflection the usage would be 
 
 * The word " treating " might mean for peace, but the context 
 and letters which follow, will show that it related to invituig some of 
 the late Ministers to return to office. 
 
 K 2
 
 132 HENRY FOX. [17G2. 
 
 thought hard, and your Royal Highness not to have 
 acted a very friendly part to the Crown. 
 
 " The next consideration is this : — may not Lord 
 Bute (who being to continue in administration might 
 prefer the Duke of Newcastle to Mr. Pitt for a col- 
 league), if he is to leave administration quite, choose to 
 give it up to Mr. Pitt, who would bring such a popu- 
 larity with him to the King as has never yet been 
 seen. Drove to go quite out, I think this would be 
 the case. But at present he has, I verily believe, no 
 thoughts of treating with anybody ; and perhaps may 
 intend to give up to Grenville the point, so far as 
 to ask a compensation for the Havannah. This indeed 
 is delaying, not curing the evil ; and yet it may per- 
 haps cure it by unforeseen accidents. But if he is 
 drove to treat, your Royal Highness will, I dare say, 
 excuse my having offered, in conversation and in this 
 letter, some things to your consideration, which I can- 
 not forbear thinking have great weight. 
 
 " I am, Sir, 
 Your Royal Highness' ever obliged, ever obedient, 
 and ever devoted, humble servant, 
 
 " H. Fox. 
 
 " Thursday morning. 
 
 " P. S. I am come from Lord Bute more than ever 
 convinced that he never has had, or now has, a thought 
 of retiring or treating. He says the French have been 
 always told tliat if peace was not signed till the 
 Havannah should be taken, some compensation should
 
 1702.] TO DUKE OF CUMBERLAND. 133 
 
 be asked. He could wish this peace signed as it is, but 
 nobody would join with him in that opinion; so a com- 
 pensation Avill be asked, and I guess it will be Florida. 
 This puts off the difficulty arising from his secretaries, 
 till an answer shall come from Spain. He shewed me 
 Lord Albemarle's letter to him, commending him and 
 his letter very justly, and very highly. In conversation 
 he spoke of the setting out this expedition; in which 
 he hoped he had some merit towards your Eoyal High- 
 ness, and what had been his demerits since^ he was at a 
 loss to imagine. Indeed, sir, I could not tell him." 
 
 In giving in his adhesion to the Court, without con- 
 sulting his Royal Highness, or any of his friends. Fox 
 had trusted to his own powers of persuasion to bring 
 them over to his views. But in this expectation he 
 was disappointed. When he made the avowal to the 
 Duke, his Royal Highness bitterly reproached Fox with 
 lending himself to the support of a tottering adminis- 
 tration, and never again admitted him to his presence 
 except at public levees, where he was treated with the 
 utmost coldness and indignity, nor, as I shall have 
 occasion to show, could any submission on his part ever 
 restore him to the favour of that Prince. Failing with 
 the Duke of Cumberland, Fox tried in turn to bring 
 over the Duke of Devonshire and Lord Waldegrave to the 
 Court, but in vain. "He even," says Walpole, " made 
 applications to Newcastle, but the Duke of Cumberland 
 had inspired even Newcastle and Devonshire with reso- 
 lution." In a letter to Lord Ilardwicke, dated the 21st
 
 134 DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE. [l762. 
 
 of October, the Duke of Cumberland thus expresses 
 hiraself : " Instead of advancing too fast, your Lord- 
 ship will see that I have given a peremptory refusal 
 to the overtures that have been made to me. Those 
 by my Lord Halifax^ I am sensible, as far as relates to 
 himself were meant with all the friendship, affection, 
 and respect imaginable. Those flung out by Mr. Fox 
 you will all have in your turns. His vie7v is to create 
 jealousies amongst us, and to divide us. I thank God 
 he has failed in his great attempt, and that will sufficiently 
 mortify him.'''' 
 
 Foiled in this attempt to weaken if not to sever the 
 ties of the Whig party, the Court now adopted another 
 course. The King, it was given out, would be King, 
 — would not be dictated to by his Ministers. The 
 prerogative was to shine out — great lords must be hum- 
 bled. The first victim to the new tactics was William 
 Cavendish fifth Duke of Devonshire. In the preceding 
 reign he had held the high posts of Lord Lieutenant 
 of Ireland and First Lord of the Treasury, and Lord 
 Waldegrave says, that "In the ordinary business of his 
 office he showed great punctuality and diligence, and 
 no want of capacity." He now held the office of Lord 
 Chamberlain. He was a man of unsullied purity of 
 conduct in every relation of life, but cautious and timid 
 in his disposition, and not disinclined to a court. He 
 had a great aversion to Lord Bute, and had been ill- 
 used by George the Third when Prince of Wales, as 
 well as by the Princess Dowager, who ironically styled 
 liiui "the Prince of the Whigs."
 
 1762.] LETTER TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. 135 
 
 Shortly after Newcastle's retirement, the Duke of 
 Devonshire had intimated to the King that out of 
 respect to his Majesty's person he would, if it was 
 the royal pleasure, continue Chamberlain, as he did 
 not consider that office of a political nature. He re- 
 peated, however, that it was his determination to assist 
 no longer at Councils which were conducted upon prin- 
 ciples he could not approve. Notwithstanding this 
 declaration he received early in October an official 
 summons to form one of the Cabinet to decide on the 
 final orders of the peace. This, agreeably to what he 
 had declared to the King, he declined doing in the most 
 respectful manner. " I am amazed," writes the Duke of 
 Newcastle, on the 12th of October, " that after what 
 had passed, the King should expose himself to a refusal, 
 or to lay the Duke of Devonshire under so great a diffi- 
 culty as the King's commands on such an occasion must 
 put upon him." The result of this refusal is shown in 
 the next letter. 
 
 THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE TO MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHAM. 
 " Newcastle House, Oct. 28, 1762, Thursday at night. 
 
 " My DEAR Lord, 
 
 " This express brings your Lordship an account of 
 the most extraordinary event that has happened in any 
 court of Europe. The Duke of Devonshire went to 
 St. James's (I believe, between you and me) with a 
 design to resign the staff; but that, neither I nor any 
 mortal knew, and I am sure was not suspected by the
 
 136 LETTER TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. [1762. 
 
 King or Lord Bute. The Duke of Devonshire desired 
 to speak to the King. This page came out and told the 
 Duke of Devonshire that his Majesty had commanded 
 him to tell his Grace he would not see him. The Duke 
 then desired to know to whom His Majesty would have 
 him deliver his staiF? His Majesty sent him word by 
 the same page that he would send his orders to the 
 Duke of Devonshire. My Lord Duke has since been 
 with my Lord Egremont, and has delivered to him his 
 key and staff. I believe there never was such a beha- 
 viour to the first and best subject the King has. It 
 must affect all the nobility, and all those who can ap- 
 proach His Majesty. Had I any call to it I know what 
 I should do to-morrow. 
 
 " Indeed, my dear Lord, these violences are very 
 alarming, and the more as in this instance they are exer- 
 cised upon one who the last time the King saw him at 
 the installation was treated by His Majesty with the 
 greatest seeming confidence and regard, and I know the 
 Duke of Devonshire went to the Bath under the delu- 
 sion that he was personally particularly well with the 
 King, and never heard otherwise from the Court till he 
 met with this treatment at St. James's." 
 
 On the same day that the Duke of Devonshire re- 
 signed, his brother. Lord George Cavendish, rendered up 
 his wand of Comptroller of the Household. " He was," 
 continues the Duke of Newcastle, " as ill-used in the 
 closet as his brother, who was not permitted to come 
 there. All the King said to Lord George was, ' If a per-
 
 1702.] CHARACTER OF LORD ROCKINGHAM. 137 
 
 son wants to resign his staff I don't desire he should 
 keep it.' His Majesty gave his head a toss back and 
 retired towards the window to set the staff down, and 
 this is all that passed." 
 
 This stretch of power called forth another opponent 
 to the measures of the Court, — Charles Watson Went- 
 worth, second Marquis of Rockingham, at this time a 
 Lord of the Bedchamber, but soon to become the leader 
 of the Whigs. This nobleman, born 19th March, 1730, 
 was the youngest of five sons, who all, except himself, 
 died in childhood. His father, Thomas Wentworth, 
 was a direct descendant from the celebrated Earl of 
 Strafford, whose fate is so intimately interwoven with 
 that of his unfortunate master Charles the First. ''" Mr. 
 Wentworth became, in the course of nineteen years, 
 a Knight of the Bath, member for the West Riding 
 of Yorkshire, Lord Lieutenant of the same county, 
 Baron Haith, Viscount Higham, Earl of Malton, Baron 
 Rockingham, Marquis of Rockingham. So rapidly had 
 some of these honours descended upon him, that Sir 
 
 * The following hitherto unpublished letter of Lord Strafford is 
 addressed to his daughter, Lady Anne Wentworth, who afterwards 
 married Edward Watson, second Baron Rockingham. It was written 
 three weeks before his execution. Either he was unconscious of his 
 impending fate, or he was anxious to delay for a time the affliction 
 which its announcement would but too soon occasion : — 
 
 " My dearest Nan, 
 
 " The time, I trust, drawes on wherein I may hope to see you, 
 which will be one of the best sightes I can look upon in this world. 
 Your father, as you desired, hath been hearde speake for himself, now 
 thes three weekes together, and within a few days we shall see the 
 conclusion. Ther is, I think, little fear of my life, soe I hope for a
 
 138 CHARACTER OF LORD ROCKINGHAM. [l7G2. 
 
 Robert Walpole said jokingly, soon after his being 
 created an earl, " I suppose we shall soon see our friend 
 Malton in opposition, for he has had no promotion 
 in the peerage for the last fortnight." 
 
 His son Charles, the more immediate subject of our 
 consideration, was educated at Eton. But little is 
 known of him till the winter of 1745, when, at the age 
 of fifteen, he went to Wentworth to pass the Christmas 
 holidays. One morning he went out hunting, attended 
 by a confidential groom, named Stephen Lobb. Nigh* 
 came on, and neither master nor groom made their 
 appearance. The next day it was reported that Lord 
 Higham and Stephen were seen riding in a northerly 
 direction. A short time afterwards a letter arrived 
 from the truant himself, dated Carlisle, the head-quar- 
 ters of the Duke of Cumberland, who had just taken the 
 field against the Pretender. Zeal for the Whig cause 
 had impelled him to join the royal army. His family 
 were, or professed to be, much displeased with him for 
 
 meanes to be left me, to let you see how deare and much esteemed 
 you are and ever shall be to me. 
 
 " Look that you learne to play the good housewife, for now, per- 
 chance, ther may be need of it ; yet however fortune befall me, 
 I shall willingly give you the first good of it, and content myself with 
 the second, 
 
 " My dear hartte, plie your book and other learnings, which will 
 be of use unto you hereafter, and you shall see we will live happily 
 and contentedly, and live to see all thes stormes blowen over, that so 
 at leisure and in fairer weather, I may tell you that which I am, and 
 must infallibly be, in all the conditions of life. Your loving father, 
 
 " Strafforde. 
 
 " Tower, this 19th April, 164L"
 
 17G2.] CHARACTER OF LORD ROCKINGHAM. 139 
 
 the anxiety his escapade had occasioned them. One 
 only stood up for tlie youthful volunteer. This was 
 his aunt, Lady Bel Finch, who being of a kindred mind, 
 rejoiced that " the monkey Charles had shown such a 
 spirit." The letter which obtained his father's pardon, 
 has not been preserved. But amongst his papers is the 
 following to the Countess of Malton. It is without 
 date, and written in a large schoolboy hand. 
 
 " Dear Madam, 
 
 " When I think of the concern I have given you by 
 my wild expedition, and how my whole life, quite from 
 my infancy, has afforded you only a continued series of 
 afflictions, it grieves me excessively that I did not 
 think of the concern I was going to give you and my 
 father before such an undertaking; but the desire I 
 had of serving my King and country as much as lay in 
 my power, did not give me time to think of the unduti- 
 fulness of the action. As my father has been so kind 
 as entirely to forgive my breach of duty, I hope I may, 
 and shall have your forgiveness, which will render me 
 quite happy. 
 
 " I am. Madam, 
 
 " Your very dutiful Son, 
 
 " IIlGHAM." 
 
 In 1750, Lord Iligham, or, as he had since become, 
 the Earl of l\Ialton, succeeded his father as Marquis of 
 Rockingham. Soon after he came of age he was ap- 
 pointed Lord Lieutenant of the North and West
 
 140 CHARACTER OF LORD ROCKINGHAM. [l762. 
 
 Eidings of Yorkshire, and, in 1760, was made a Knight 
 of the Garter. He had formerly been a Lord of the 
 Bedchamber to George the Second, and held the same 
 post under his successor, till the Duke of Devonshire 
 resigned the Chamberlain's wand. 
 
 Eighteen years the leader of a party, and twice sum- 
 moned to the councils of his reluctant sovereign, Lord 
 Rockingham holds a prominent station in the reign of 
 George the Third. Nor can it be objected to him that 
 the fidelity of his adherence was secured by the ordi- 
 nary ties of faction or interest. Faith to their leader 
 was, to the Whigs, a virtual renunciation of all those 
 rewards which a chief magistrate has it in his power to 
 bestow. Their adherence was the loyalty of respect and 
 affection, not the casual allegiance of a cabal. It stood 
 the test of long discouragement. It survived the 
 severer trial of a brief official prosperity. The causes 
 of the attachment of his followers must be sought in 
 the character of the leader himself. Lord Rockingham 
 possessed by nature a calm mind and a clear intellect, a 
 warm benevolent heart, of which amiable and conci- 
 liatory manners were the index. He was imbued with 
 sound views of the principles of the Constitution, and 
 with a firm resolution to make those principles the 
 guide of his actions. If eloquence were the sole crite- 
 rion of a great leader or a great minister, Rockingham 
 would have but small claims to such a title. The 
 malady which consigned him to the tomb, when he was 
 little more than fifty years of age, had imparted to his 
 frame a sensibility of nerve which only extraordinary
 
 1702.] CHARACTER OF LORD ROCKINGHAM. 141 
 
 occasions enabled liini to overcome, lie was a hesi- 
 tating and an inelegant debater. His speeches, like 
 those of the late Lord Althorp, commanded attention, 
 not from the enthusiasm aroused by the persuasive 
 arguments of the orator, but from the confidence placed 
 in the thorough integrity and practical good sense of 
 the man. He stood in a similar relation to a great 
 minister — to a Fox, a Grey, or a Russell — which an 
 able chamber-counsel bears to an Erskine. He lacked / 
 the outward graces. He possessed the inward power. 
 If success in public measures be a test of ability, Rock- 
 ingham stood pre-eminent. In no one year between the 
 Revolution and the Reform Bill were so many immuni- 
 ties gained for the people, or, more properly speaking, 
 so many breaches in the Constitution repaired, as in 
 what was contemptuously called his " Lutestring Admi- 
 nistration ;" '" and all too in the face of one of the ablest 
 and most unscrupulous Oppositions, of which the King 
 himself was the head. 
 
 In his relations to George the Third, Rockingham 
 was " impar congressus Achilli." He was thoroughly 
 in earnest, but his earnestness was for his country. 
 The King was likewise in earnest, but his earnestness 
 was for his prerogative. The one was all honesty, the 
 other all insincerity. As the reader proceeds, he will 
 find the royal letters most gracious, the royal conduct 
 most disingenuous. He will perceive that the King 
 authorized his Ministers to contradict rumours which 
 
 * Charles Townshend said, the Rockingham " was a lutestring 
 administration, fit only for summer wear."
 
 142 LORD ROCKINGHAM [1762. 
 
 himself had circulated, and that the " King's friends " 
 were busily employed in refuting the official state- 
 ments of the Cabinet. Had George the Third possessed 
 common sincerity, Lord Eockingham's efforts to preserve 
 the American colonies would probably have been effec- 
 tual. But between the Minister, whose " virtues were 
 his arts,"* and the Monarch, who, like Lysander, pieced 
 the lion's hide with the fox's skin, the struggle was 
 unequal, and Rockingham was arrested in his career 
 of usefulness, and added one more ministerial victim 
 to royal duplicity. 
 
 The attention of the reader should now be called to 
 Lord Rockingham's conduct on receiving the intimation 
 of the Duke of Devonshire's dismissal. It will be seen 
 in the letter which follows. 
 
 THE MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHAM TO THE DUKE OF 
 
 CUMBERLAND. 
 
 " Sir, " Nov. 3, 1762. 
 
 " After the repeated instances of your Royal High- 
 ness's condescension towards me, I hope it will not 
 appear presumption in me to take the liberty to inform 
 your Royal Highness of the motives and manner of 
 my conduct. 
 
 " The late treatment of the Duke of Devonshire 
 seemed to me, in the strongest light, fully to explain 
 
 * A quotation from Burke's inscription on the mausoleum at 
 Wentworth, erected by the late Lord Fitzwilliam, in honour of his 
 uncle. Lord Rockingham.
 
 1702] TO DUKE OF CUMBERLAND. 143 
 
 the intention and the tendency of all the domestic 
 arrangements. I, therefore, had the honour of an au- 
 dience of his Majesty on AVednesday morning, wherein 
 I humbly informed his Majesty, that it was with great 
 concern that I saw the tendency of the counsels, which 
 now had weight with him : that this event fully showed 
 the determination that those persons who had hitherto 
 been always the most steadily attached to his Koyal 
 predecessors, and who had hitherto deservedly had the 
 greatest weight in this country, were now driven out 
 of any share in the government in this country, and 
 marked out rather as objects of his Majesty's displea- 
 sure than of his favour: that the alarm was general 
 among his Majesty's most affectionate subjects, and 
 that it appeared to me in this light ; — it might be 
 thought, if I continued in office, that I either had not 
 the sentiments which I declared, or that I disguised 
 them, and acted a part which I disclaimed. 
 
 " His Majesty's answer was short ; saying that he did 
 not desire any person should continue in his service 
 any longer than it was agreeable to him." 
 
 THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND'S ANSWER. 
 
 " Windsor Great Lodge, Nov. 5, 1762. 
 
 " My Lord Eockingham, 
 
 "I am very much obliged to you for the letting me 
 know anything that relates to you, but much more for 
 your information on so interesting an occasion as that 
 of leaving the King's personal service at present.
 
 144 RESIGNATION OF LORD ROCKINGHAM. [ 170-2. 
 
 " I am most sincerely sorry that we live in such 
 times, that a man of your rank and steady attachment 
 to the King and his family, should find himself neces- 
 sitated to take the step you have taken. 
 
 " You have one satisfaction, that all the kingdom 
 will be convinced your views are meant entirely for his 
 Majesty's service, however they may be received at 
 present; and no one is more so than I am. 
 
 " I hope we shall soon see these clouds — nay storms 
 — well over, and you, and others of your principles, at 
 Court again. You'll be so good to make my sincere 
 compliments at Chatsworth, and I hope we shall soon 
 see you quite well in town. 
 
 " I remain your very affectionate friend, 
 
 " William." 
 
 To the Marquis of Granby, Lord Rockingham, in 
 announcing the same event, says — 
 
 " Seeing the affair in this light, I had the honour 
 yesterday of an audience of the King, wherein I de- 
 clared to his Majesty most fully, that, with the greatest 
 concern, I saw that those whose counsels now weighed 
 with his Majesty had, by this base step, fully explained 
 the tendency of all their proceedings : that this, added 
 to all that was gone before, would increase the alarm 
 which I believed was very general among his Majesty's 
 most affectionate subjects, and that, as my continuing 
 in office might look as if I either did not feel these 
 sentiments, or, if I did, that I disguised them, I
 
 1702.] TREATMENT OF THE UUKE OF DEVONSHIRE. 145 
 
 begged liis Majesty's permission to resign, that I niiglit 
 not appear to act a deceitful part, which I disdained ; 
 that I acted upon the dictates of my own judgment, 
 and that his Majesty was tlie first man whom 1 had 
 acquainted with my determination. His Majesty's an- 
 swer was short, only saying that he desired no person 
 to continue in his service any longer than was agreeable 
 to him." 
 
 On the 4th November, the day on which Lord Tioc-k- 
 ingham resigned, the Duke of Manchester was nomi- 
 nated to the Bedchamber. The King then in council, 
 called for the book, and, with his own hand, struck out 
 the Duke of Devonshire's name from the list of Privy 
 Councillors. 
 
 The only two precedents for such a course in the 
 preceding reign, were those of Lord Bath, and Lord 
 George Sackville; the one for open and virulent op- 
 position, tlie otlier for his conduct at the battle of 
 Mind en. 
 
 From this exercise of the prerogative may be dated 
 the first attempt since the Revolution to organize an 
 opposition on constitutional grounds. Thus, after the 
 crown had passed to another family, and the controversy 
 had shifted itself to other grounds, we find the Wliigs 
 were once more banded together to resist the encroach- 
 ments of prerogative upon privilege. 
 
 " The shocking event," writes the Duke of Newcastle, 
 " in striking the Duke of Devonshire out of the Privy 
 Council, enrages, frightens, and alarms everybody ; and 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 146 EARLS OF KINNOULL AND LINCOLN. [l702. 
 
 particularly my friend my Lord Kinnoull, who is come 
 up a very different man from what I expected; full of 
 wrath and resentment, without management or disguise, 
 determined to quit the Chancellor of the Duchy im- 
 mediately ; '"" that ' the Ministers (Lord Bute and Mr. 
 Fox) have begun their acts of violence and they must 
 take the consequence of it.' This, I dare say, we shall 
 find the general language, except some few Rats^ who 
 will do their own business. Lord Lincoln,! and I dare 
 
 * A few days afterwards, Thomas Hay, eighth Earl of Klnnoull, 
 resigned the Chancellorship of the Duchy of Lancaster, which he had 
 held since 1758. During the life-time of his father, he sat as 
 Viscount Dupplin, for the town of Camhridge, in three Parliaments. 
 He was at different times a Lord of the Bedchamber and Paymaster 
 of the Forces. In 1759 he was appointed Ambassador to the Court 
 of Portugal, a mission rendered memorable by the line — 
 
 " KinnouU's lewd cargo, and Tyrawley's crew." 
 
 After his resignation of his office, Lord Kinnoull retired to Scotland 
 and passed the remainder of his life in improving his country-seat. 
 
 Mrs. Montague, who paid him a visit in 1 770, writes, "Iwas delighted 
 to find an old friend enjoying that heartfelt happiness which attends a 
 life of virtue. He is continually employed in encouraging agriculture 
 and manufacture, protecting the weak from injury, assisting the dis- 
 tressed, and animating the young to whatever is most fit and proper. 
 He appears more happy than when he was whirled about in the vortex 
 of the Duke of Newcastle." 
 
 t Henry Clinton, ninth Earl of Lincoln, married Catherine, eldest 
 daughter of the Right Hon. Thomas Pelham, and succeeded to the 
 Dukedom of Newcastle on the death of his uncle. In January 1763, 
 he was made " Auditor of the Exchequer for life, the amplest sinecure 
 in England," says Walpolc, "except the Archbishopric of Canterbury." 
 The following is the same writer's account of the expected resignation 
 alluded to in the text : — 
 
 " Lord Lincoln, Newcastle's favourite nephew and heir, displayed
 
 1762.] EARL OF ASHBURNHAM. 147 
 
 say my Lord Ashburnham,* will resign next week, 
 according to what we settled the other night." 
 
 Amidst the many obstacles that presented themselves 
 to the formation of this confederacy, was the dislike 
 of the Duke of Cumberland to Mr. Pitt. So strong 
 had been this feeling in 1759, that the Duke had sti- 
 pulated the dismissal of Mr. Pitt as the sine qua non 
 of his acceptance of the command in Germany. But 
 this difficulty was now overcome. Some weeks before, 
 the Duke of Newcastle declared his Royal Highness to 
 be " in a very good way, and much softened towards 
 Mr. Pitt :\ and in the letter just quoted, he says — 
 
 more open ingratitude. He asked an audience of the King, called his 
 uncle a factious old fool, and said he could not forget a message which 
 himself had Vjrought from his uncle to his Majesty in the year 1757, 
 in which the Duke had signified to his then Royal Highness, that if 
 he would not disturb the tranquillity of the rest of his father's reign, 
 the Duke, in or out of place, though he hoped the latter, would sup- 
 port his measures to the utmost. It was justice to recollect this 
 promise ; but Lincoln's subsequent conduct, at the same time that it 
 was inconsistent, was honourable neither to the King nor his uncle. 
 He had a second audience, in which he told the King that the Duke 
 insisted on his resigning ; ' but if I must,' said he, ' I will show but 
 the more warmly the next day that I remember the message, of which 
 I have kept a copy in writing.' The third time when he went to 
 resign, he said he must oppose. The King told him his tone was 
 much changed since his first audience. But the Court never had 
 much reason to complain of Lord Lincoln's hostilities." 
 
 * John Ashburnham, second Earl of Ashburnham. Walpole 
 speaks of him as "the chief favourite of the Duke of Newcastle, 
 whom he afterwards abandoned, being a very prudent and interested 
 man." He resigned at this time his offices of Lord of the Bed- 
 chamber and Ranger of St. James's and Hyde Parks, and was made 
 Keeper of the Great Wardrobe in Lord Rockingham's first adminis- 
 tration, f Letter to Lord Hardwicke, September 30, 1 7G2. 
 
 L 2
 
 148 DUKE OF RUTLAND. [l762. 
 
 " I had yesterday a long conference with the Duke. 
 I am every day more satisfied and convinced that his 
 Royal Highness will act in concert with us in every- 
 thing ; and is in the rightest disposition imaginable; 
 firm and determined — not rash or passionate. I think 
 the following resolution is a thorough proof of it, for 
 his Royal Highness would never desire to see Mr. Pitt, 
 and that (if possible), since the conclusion of the peace, 
 if he intended to keep any measures with Mr. Fox. 
 
 " The Duke lays vast stress upon the Duke of Rut- 
 land's* quitting. That devilish Foa; and Calcmft f 
 get in everywhere. The Duke apprehends Calcraft will 
 do great hurt with Granby. The Duke extremely ap- 
 proves our resolution, not to let our friends in the 
 House of Commons resign, till we can communicate to 
 
 * John Manners, third Duke of Rutland, father of the celebrated 
 Marquis of Granby. His Grace was appointed Master of the Horse 
 in 1761, but did not quit his office until five years afterwards, and 
 then in order to facilitate some Ministerial arrangement of the King 
 and Lord Chatham. In a letter, dated August 22, 1 766, George the 
 Third desires Lord Chatham to " convey his approbation to the Duke 
 of Rutland for his very meritorious conduct." 
 
 -f- John Calcraft, a cousin, and formerly Private Secretary of 
 the first Lord Holland, by whom he was introduced into public 
 notice. He subsequently acquired a very large fortune as army 
 agent. He afterwards abandoned his patron, and became in turn 
 the confidential friend of the Duke of Bedford and Lord Chatham. 
 It is probably to his desertion of Lord Holland that he is so severely 
 liandled by Junius, who always evinced a great partiality for that 
 nobleman. The Duke of Cumberland's apprehension that Calcraft 
 would " do great hurt with Granby," was probably that knowing 
 Granby to be embarrassed in his circumstances, he thought he might 
 be under pecuniary obligations to Calcraft.
 
 170-2.] PITT'S CONFERENCE WITH MR. T. WALPOLE. 149 
 
 them our plan of meiisures. Both his Royal Highness 
 as well as myself wish that plan would be set about." 
 
 Another impediment which lay in the way of a poli- 
 tical alliance of the various sections of the Whigs, was 
 the dislike which Pitt entertained for the Duke of New- 
 castle. To soften this feeling, Thomas Walpole* had 
 an interview with the great Commoner. The result of 
 the conference is stated in the paper which follows. 
 As the Duke of Newcastle observed in another letter: 
 " It is the many 
 
 " Mr. Pitt entered into a long discourse of his con- 
 duct, at the latter end of his late Majesty's reign, and 
 duirug his present Majesty's, to the time of his resig- 
 nation, when he was reduced to such a situation, 
 that, out-toried by Lord B., and out-whigged by the 
 D. of N., he had nobody to converse with but the 
 Clerk of the House of Commons. 
 
 " That lately he had been applied to by persons of 
 high rank to concur with Lord B. for the public good, 
 with offers much above his deserts, and therefore he 
 was ashamed to mention them. He told those persons 
 Lord B. could not expect he would abet the tran- 
 scendancy of power his Lordship had arrived at, after 
 what had passed between them upon that subject, on 
 the day of his Majesty's accession to the throne ; when 
 
 * Hon. Thomas Walpole, second son of Horatio Lord Walpole of 
 Wolverton, a partner of Sir Joshua Vanneck, a banker, whose daugh- 
 ter he married. He sat in many Parliaments. He was for some time 
 President of the Constitutional Society. Mr. Walpole died in 1803.
 
 150 PROPOSED OPPOSITION [1762. 
 
 in a private conversation with his Lordship, Mr. Pitt 
 told him his advancement to the management of the 
 affairs of the country would not be for his Majesty's 
 service. 
 
 " Upon Lord B. taking the seals, Mr. Pitt having 
 never seen Lord B. in private since the day above- 
 mentioned, his Lordship came to acquaint Mr. Pitt 
 with his promotion, and received the same opinions 
 as before : that Mr. Pitt did not think it for his 
 Majesty's service. And that now his Lordship was 
 arrived at fulness of power, he could not bear with 
 the Duke of Devonshire, but insulted the nobility, 
 intimidated the gentry, and trampled on the people, 
 — he, Mr. Pitt, would never contribute to that yoke 
 Lord B. was laying on the neck of the people. 
 
 " He said, if others had been as firm as himself, 
 things would not have been brought to their present 
 crisis; that he did not well see what was to be done; 
 that the D. of N., D. of D., and Lord Hardwicke had 
 been so much disposed to a peace; the peace was now 
 come, and seemed to be final. 
 
 " After passing some strictures upon the late treaty 
 of peace, 
 
 " Mr. Pitt then returned to the domestic part, — 
 expressing his apprehension that the distinction of 
 Whig and Tory was rising as high as ever; that he lay 
 under great obligations to many gentlemen who had 
 been of the denomination of Tories, but who, during 
 his share of the administration, had supported govern- 
 ment upon the principles of Whiggism and of the Revo-
 
 1702.] OF THE WIIIGS. 151 
 
 lution; that he would die a Whig, and support invari- 
 ably those principles; yet he would concur in no 
 prescriptive measures; and though it was necessary 
 Lord B. should be removed from the office he now 
 held, he might not think it quite for his Majesty's 
 service to have the Duke of N. succeed there : begging 
 that this might not be thought to proceed from any 
 resentment to the Duke of N., for whose person he had 
 real regard, and who perhaps might have as much 
 cause to complain of Mr. Pitt, as Mr. Pitt of his Grace. 
 "With regard to himself, he had felt inexpressible 
 anxieties at holding office against the goodwill of the 
 Crown; that he would never put himself again in that 
 situation, nor accept of any employment whilst his 
 Majesty had that opinion of him which he was ac- 
 quainted with." 
 
 Upon this document the Duke of Newcastle remarks, 
 " The Duke (of Cumberland) does not dislike the ac- 
 count Tommy Walpole gives of Mr. Pitt's conversation. 
 It is the man^ and, as such, we must take him, if we 
 would have him. . . The Duke apprehends he (the 
 Duke of Cumberland) is to be closeted by the King, 
 who Avill put him the short question, ' Will you be 
 for me or the Duke of Devonshire?' His Royal 
 Highness does not intend to go to St. James's till the 
 day before the Parliament, that they may know as late 
 as possible his resolution and determination. He will 
 take special care that none of his servants shall attend 
 Mr. Fox's meeting before the Parliament."
 
 152 COURT PERSECUTION [17G2. 
 
 Every Whig of note had by this time been driven 
 from office, or been absorbed by the King's friends. 
 The deserters, indeed, formed a very numerous section. 
 " It is but too true," writes Newcastle to Hardwicke, on 
 the 19th December; " what Mr. Fox said at first, my 
 Lord Bute has got over all the Duke of Newcastle's 
 friends Never was man who had it in his power to 
 serve, to make, to choose, so great a part of the mem- 
 bers of both Houses, so abandoned as I am at present." 
 
 The Court now pointed their batteries against the 
 subalterns of the liberal party. Every relative, friend, 
 or dependent of the Duke of Newcastle Avas, one after 
 the other, turned out of his office, and their proscrip- 
 tion extended even to the offices of Customs and Ex- 
 cise. Lord Bute disclaimed these violent proceedings, 
 and in some instances recompensed the aggrieved 
 parties, the object being that he might have all the 
 merit and Fox all tlie odium. Upon this conduct the 
 Duke of Devonshire thus comments, in a letter of 
 the 26th of December, 1762, to the Marquis of Rock- 
 ingham. 
 
 " The turning out inferior officers, persons that are 
 not in Parliament, and can have jjiven no offence, is 
 a cruel, unjust, and unheard of proceeding, and will 
 most undoubtedly do the ministers no good, but on 
 the contrary, create a general odium against them. 
 As to one set of men endeavouring to throw it upon 
 the other, I look upon it as mere artifice, for measures 
 of this kind cannot be done but in concert, and there-
 
 1762.] OF THE WHIG PARTY. 153 
 
 foi-e I pay no regard to wliat they say on the subject, 
 and only wish the time was come to retaliate upon 
 them, and that they may have ample justice done 
 them. 
 
 " I have wrote my mind fully to the Duke of New- 
 castle, that we should if possible keep our people quiet 
 for some time; wait for events, and see what steps the 
 Ministers take : if they propose anything that is wrong, 
 oppose it; if not, let them alone, by which means we 
 shall gain time to collect our strength, and see whom 
 we can depend upon ; if we can get leaders and a 
 tolerable corps of troops, I am for battle; but I am 
 against appearing in a weak opposition, as we shall 
 make an insignificant figure, prejudice our friends, and 
 do no good." 
 
 While one Duke was preparing, with his natural 
 caution, temper, and dignity, for the approaching party 
 struggle, another Duke — Newcastle — with an equally 
 characteristic absence of these qualities, was venting 
 his complaints to all who would listen to him. The 
 Duke of Devonshire, to whom, among others, he had 
 sent a detailed account of his grievances, wrote in 
 reply : — 
 
 
 
 " I am not surprised that these things affect you 
 nearly, but the more you feel, the less you ouglit to 
 show it, and therefore keep up your spirits, and con- 
 sider that by talking of it and complaining, you afford 
 matter of triumph to your enemies, and give them
 
 154 DISMISSAL OF NEWCASTLE FROM [1762. 
 
 encouragement to proceed to further acts of violence 
 against your particular friends, in order either to in- 
 timidate you or to oppress you quite." . . . 
 
 " I agree entirely with the Duke of Cumberland, 
 that it is much better we should be quiet for the pre- 
 sent, and wait till some facts arise, that we can with 
 weight and propriety lay hold of. When the Ministry 
 come to lay open their plan of force and the different 
 regulations for this country in time of peace, I am 
 persuaded there will be matter for animadversion. 
 Another advantage will be, that it will give time to 
 collect our strength, and find out whom we can really 
 depend upon: for acting in the uncertain manner we 
 did before Christmas, will expose us and make us 
 weaker." 
 
 Tn the letter from the Duke of Devonshire to Lord 
 Rockingham, of the 26th of December, already quoted, 
 his Grace says, 
 
 " I question much whether they will remove the 
 Lord Lieutenants. I have told the Duke of Newcastle 
 that the resigning deserves serious consideration, as 
 our friends in the country may think we give them 
 up. However, I shall be ready to do as my friends 
 do; I should be glad to know your opinion in case his 
 Grace (Newcastle) is removed, if you think it right 
 to resign, whether you could stay till I came to town, 
 that we might go together."
 
 17(J2.J HIS LORD-LIEUTENANCIES. 155 
 
 Three days prior to the date of this letter, the Duke 
 of Newcastle received an official notification from Lord 
 Halifax, of his being deprived of the Lieutenancies of 
 Middlesex, Nottinghamshire, and Sussex, and of the 
 Stewardship of Sherwood Forest. 
 
 The Duke of Devonshire, in a letter of condolence* 
 upon this event, writes — " 1 am pleased with a bon-mot 
 that I am told is in one of the public papers (for I 
 never read them), viz. that the Ministers have turned 
 out everybody your Grace helped to bring in, except 
 the King." 
 
 To the Marquis of Rockingliam the Duke of New- 
 castle also enclosed a copy of Lord Halifax's letter, 
 " I send your Lordship," he writes, " a Ullet-douaj I 
 received this morning from my good friend and rela- 
 tive, the Earl of Halifax. I dare say it is the only 
 one of the sort, for I have heard of no otlier: pray 
 let me know if you have had one. Your Lordship 
 knows that my opinion has always been that I am 
 to be run at and singled out from all the rest." 
 
 But on this occasion the poor Duke was not singled 
 out, for the same official circular had been sent to 
 the Duke of Grafton and Lord Eockingham, their re- 
 spective Lieutenancies only being specified. 
 
 In answer to Lord Halifax's letter. Lord Rocking- 
 ham replied on the 24th of December. 
 
 " I had the honour to receive your Lordship's letter, 
 by his Majesty's command, to acquaint me tluit his 
 
 * Dated Bath, December 29, 17G2.
 
 156 DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE RESIGNS. [l762. 
 
 Majesty had no further occasion for my services as 
 Lord Lieutenant, &c. I have one satisfaction which 
 no person can deprive me of; wliich is, that during 
 the time my father and I have held these offices, no 
 opportunity has heen omitted by either of showing 
 our zeal for his Majesty's royal family, or for the 
 service of our country." 
 
 Walpole says that the same affront, the dismissal 
 from the Lieutenancy, being designed for the Duke of 
 Devonshire, Fox affected to make a point of saving him, 
 but the Duke, with proper spirit, scorned to be obliged 
 to him, and resigned to accompany his friends. This 
 assertion is confirmed by the following letter. 
 
 THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE TO THE EARL OF HALIFAX. 
 
 "Dec. 30, 1762. 
 
 " The removal of the Duke of Newcastle and Loixl 
 Rockingham from the Lieutenancies of their respective 
 counties, appearing to me a clear indication that his 
 Majesty does not tliink fit that those who have in- 
 curred his displeasure should continue his Lord Lieu- 
 tenants, and, as I have the misfortune to come within 
 that description,, his Majesty having j)een advised to 
 show me the strongest marks of his displeasure that 
 could possibly be shown to any subject, I look upon 
 it as a respect due to ray sovereign, and I owe it to 
 myself, not to continue any longer in such an office. 
 T must therefore beg the favour of your Lordship to 
 carry to the King my resignation of the Lord Lieu-
 
 1762.] THE LORD-LIEUTENANCY OF DERBY. 157 
 
 tenancy and Cnstos Ilotuloruui of the County of 
 Derby. 
 
 " 1 am, &c. 
 
 " Devonshire." 
 
 the marquis of rockingham to the earl of 
 
 hardwicke. 
 
 " I AM glad the Duke of Devonshire has resigned ; 
 I wish his Grace's letter had been turned more seriously 
 to the Ministers, but the eflect in the world will tell 
 the same as if it had been so expressed in his letter, 
 for certainly the resignation is defeating the artifice, 
 and declaring that his Grace cannot bear the surmise 
 that either of the present Ministers prevented his being 
 turned out along with the other Lord Lieutenants." 
 
 Lord Hardwicke says in answer — " The observa- 
 tion which your Lordship makes, is, I think, in a 
 great measure met by the words, ' His Majesty having 
 been advised,' &c., which plainly point at the Minis- 
 ters ; but if these words should be thought to fall short, 
 they are amply supplied by his spirited letter to the 
 Duke of Newcastle, which his Grace judged very rightly 
 in sending by the common post and trusting to their 
 curiosity." 
 
 The dismissals were not long confined to persons of 
 high rank ; a bitter persecution raged in every depart- 
 ment. Men holding such humble situations as door-
 
 158 DISMISSAL OF [l7G3. 
 
 keepers were thrust out of them, solely because they 
 had originally owed them to the opponents of the 
 peace. In reference to this savage proscription, the 
 Duke of Newcastle thus writes, on the 24th of January, 
 to the Earl of Hardwicke : — 
 
 " I SEND your Lordship the most cruel and inhuman 
 list that was ever seen, not only in a free country, nor 
 even in any civilized nation. This list, as I under- 
 stand, was sent to the Custom House on Saturday last, 
 and yet, cruel as it is, we are told it is only their first 
 fire^ and that we are to have a second; and what 
 favours that opinion is, that they seem hitherto to have 
 gone through only the Port of London, and the poor 
 unhappy County of Sussex. Their brutality and inhu- 
 manity may have satisfied, in some measure, their 
 revenge. But if they meant by it to promote their 
 interests in our county, I can assure them it will have 
 a quite different effect. 
 
 " The Duke of Devonshire was so kind as to come 
 hither on Saturday, and indeed his conversation was a 
 great relief and comfort to me. The repeated proofs 
 he gave me of his friendship, his manly way of talking 
 and acting upon these cruelties committed upon me 
 and ray friends, and his resolution to let all the world 
 know his detestation of them, will and must have an 
 effect upon all honest men. 
 
 " My Lord Cornwallis,'"" and Lord Thomas Cavendish, 
 
 * Charles Cornwallis, second Earl of Cornwallis, at this time a 
 Lieutenant-Colonel in the army, became a General Officer, was
 
 1763.] CUSTOM-HOUSE OFFICERS. 159 
 
 Lord Middleton,'" and Mr. Onslow, whom I have seen 
 since, are determined, as well as my Lord Villiers f 
 and Tom Pelham, ' 7o cry aloud and spare not'/ and 
 indeed, after such a behaviour, measures or management 
 with the authors are only marks of fear and weakness, 
 and will encourage these men in tlie continuance of 
 their barbarous proceedings. There is not one single 
 man turned out, against whom the slightest complaint 
 can be made, in the execution of their office. Most of 
 them were excellent officers. I find several of my 
 friends are determined to mention these cruelties in 
 their speeches in the House of Commons. 
 
 " I hope they will be supported by men of more 
 weight and experience than themselves. They don't 
 propose to make any motion or formal complaint. I 
 hear the late Speaker | (who is provoked beyond mea- 
 sure) says ^/^«^ may be regularly done; and I am told 
 
 created Marquis Cornwallis in 1792, filled the office of Co^imander- 
 in-Chief, was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland in 1799, was 
 twice Governor-General of India, in which country he died in 1805. 
 
 * George Broderick, third Viscount Middleton, married, in 1752, 
 Albinia Townshend, great niece of the Duke of Newcastle, and sister 
 of Thomas Townshend, first Viscount Sydney. 
 
 t George Bussy Villiers, Viscount Villiers, afterwards fourth Earl 
 of Jersey, Member for Tamworth, a Lord of Admiralty in 1761, 
 which office he resigned in 1763. In Lord Rockingham's first admi- 
 nistration he was Vice-Chamberlain, but did not quit office with his 
 friend. General Keppel, in anticipation of the united parties of Bed- 
 ford and Rockingham coming into office in 1767, proposes to his 
 brother to make " examples of the Onslows, Townshends, Shelleys, 
 not forgetting the little Lord Villiers." — (Life of Lord Keppel, vol. i. 
 p. 392). 
 
 X The Right Hon. Arthur Onslow, for upwards of three and thirty
 
 160 EARL OF MANSFIELD. [l7<53. 
 
 that there are many instances in the old Journals of 
 such speeches, or part of them, being inserted in these 
 Journals." 
 
 The allusions in the next paragraph will be more 
 intelligible, if we recall to mind that the name of Mur- 
 ray had been a few years earlier than the date of this 
 letter intimately connected with Jacobitism, and that 
 the odium of such an imputation was by no means 
 obsolete. In a poem entitled the " Processionade," 
 published in 1746, William Murray, Earl of Mansfield, 
 and Cliief Justice of England, is thus celebrated : — 
 
 years Speaker of the House of Commons. He retired on the 18th of 
 March, 1761. 
 
 " He was elected Speaker," says Brown Willis, "by as unanimous 
 a concurrence of all the Members in general, as any of them had been 
 by their constituents in particular ; and as he enjoyed this eminent 
 station a longer time than any of his predecessors, so he executed this 
 important trust with equal, if not superior, abilities to any of those 
 who have gone before him." 
 
 " No man," Walpole says of him, " ever supported with more firm- 
 ness the privileges of the House, nor sustained the dignity of his office 
 with more authority. His knowledge of the Constitution equalled 
 his attachment. To the Crown he behaved with all the decorum 
 of respect, without sacrificing his freedom of speecli. Against the 
 encroachments of the House of Peers he was an inflexible champion. 
 His disinterested virtue supported him through all his pretensions ; 
 and though to conciliate popular favour he affected an impartiality that 
 by turns led him to the borders of insincerity' and contradiction, and 
 though he was minutely attached to forms, and that it often made 
 him troublesome in affairs of higher moment, it will be difficult to 
 find a subject whom gravity will so well become, whose knowledge 
 will be so useful and accurate, and whose fidelity to his trust will 
 prove so unshaken."
 
 17(5:i.] MURRAY OF HROUCIITON. \i}\ 
 
 " This new fiingled Scot, who was brought up at home, 
 In the very same school as his brother at Rome, 
 Kneeled conscious, as though his comrades might urge, 
 He had formerly drunk to the King be/ore George." 
 
 This charge was reiterated a few years afterwards by 
 Lord Ravensworth, wlio brought the subject before the 
 Privv Council and a Committee of the House of Lords. 
 The nephew and brother of tlie Chief Justice had also 
 both committed overt acts of treason. The former, 
 David ]\Iurray, seventh Viscount Stormont, and one of 
 the sixteen Eepresentative Peers of Scotland, had been 
 " out in the '45," and been pardoned : the latter, James 
 ^lurray, of Broughton, titular Earl of Dunbar, had been ^ 
 
 the Pretender's Private Secretary, and recompensed the 
 confidence of his unfortunate patron, by betraying his as- 
 sociates and directing the pursuers of the fugitive Stuart. 
 
 How hateful to all lionest Scotchmen — even to those 
 who adhered to the House of Hanover in the Eebellioii 
 — the name of James Murray had become, will appear 
 .by the following anecdote, taken from Lockhart's "Life 
 of Sir Walter Scott " (vol. i. p. 244, 2nd edition). The 
 Mr. and Mrs. Scott here mentioned were the father and 
 mother of the great novelist. 
 
 " Mrs. Scott's curiosity was strongly excited one 
 autumn by the regular appearance, at a certain hour 
 every evening, of a sedan-chair, to deposit a person 
 carefully muffled up in a mantle, who was immediately 
 nshercd into her husband's private room, and commonly 
 remained with him there until long after the usual bed- 
 time of this orderly family. Mi". Scott answered her 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 162 LORD MANSFIELD. [l763. 
 
 repeated inquiries with a vagueness which irritated the 
 lady's feelings more and more, until at last she could 
 bear the thing no longer ; but one evening, just as she 
 heard the bell ring, as for the stranger's chair to carry 
 him off, she made her appearance into the forbidden 
 parlour, with a salver in her hand, observing that she 
 thought the gentlemen had sat so long, they would be 
 better for a dish of tea, and had ventured to bring 
 some for their acceptance. The stranger, a person of 
 distinguished appearance and richly dressed, bowed to 
 the hidy and accepted the cup; but her husband knit 
 his brows, and refused very coldly to partake of the 
 refreshment. A moment afterwards the stranger with- 
 drew, and Mr. Scott, lifting up the window-sash, took 
 the cup, which he had left empty on the table, and 
 tossed it out on the pavement. The lady exclaimed 
 for her china ; but was put to silence by her husband's 
 saying, ' I can forgive you your little curiosity, madam, 
 but you must pay the penalty. I admit into my house, 
 on a piece of business, persons wholly unworthy to be 
 treated as guests by my wife. Neither lip of me or 
 of mine comes after Mr. ]\lurray of Broughton." 
 
 With this preamble, I introduce the next paragraph 
 in the Duke of Newcastle's letter. 
 
 " I wish when my Lord Mansfield mentioned my 
 name, your Lordship had given him your thoughts upon 
 these cruel measures. I should have been curious to 
 know what my Lord Mansfield would have said, in 
 justification of his friends the ministers, who are the
 
 17G3.] DUKE OF NEWCASTLE. 163 
 
 authors of tlieiu ; or his own silence, inactivity, and 
 indifference upon the occasion. 
 
 " Had I been a Scotch rebel, and pardoned, I might 
 have had a good chance, in those times, to be one of the 
 sixteen; but, in all times, common humanity would, as 
 it did most remarkably in the two late glorious and 
 compassionate reigns, have prevented the families of 
 the rebels from starving, and, in some instances, have 
 even put them upon a better foot than they were before. 
 Most of the successors are Mr. Fox's creatures, but 
 that makes no alteration. jNIy Lord Bute is the man 
 that does it, and must support it, and Mr. Fox the 
 servile interested agent." 
 
 Lord Waldegrave, in his " Character of the Duke 
 of Newcastle," says, " His mind can never be com- 
 posed; his spirits are always agitated. Yet this con- 
 stant ferment, which would wear out and destroy any 
 other man, is perfectly agreeable to his constitution; 
 he is at the very perfection of health when his fever 
 is at the greatest height.""* 
 
 According to Waldegrave's hypothesis, Newcastle 
 could not have had a better physician than Lord Bute; 
 for his treatment of him certainly kept his Grace in 
 that constant ferment which the noble memoir-writer 
 considers so salutary for him. But the best remedies 
 may be abused; and the dismissal of his friends so 
 acted upon the Duke's excitable temperament, that he 
 was thrown into a fever. Upon his recovery, he wrote 
 to the Earl of Hardwicke as follows : — 
 
 * Memoiiv, pp. 11, 12. 
 
 M a
 
 164 DUKE or NEWCASTLE. [1763. 
 
 " My dearest Lord, "Claremont, Jan. 6, 1763. 
 
 " I flatter myself that your Lordship will not be 
 displeased to have an account, under my own liand^ 
 that by the blessing of God, I am, I hope, perfectly 
 recovered, and that I have reason to hope that the 
 very severe discipline which I have undergone, having 
 lost so great a quantity of bad, fiery, Bute blood, will 
 greatly contribute to strengthen and amend my con- 
 stitution. The goodness and affection of my friends, 
 and most particularly your Lordship's, has, I am per- 
 suaded, greatly contributed to my cure. 
 
 " The courage, resolution, and cool behaviour of the 
 Duke of Devonshire, upon the late occasion, have made 
 such an impression upon my Lord Lincoln, that he 
 is at once become an altered man both in his public 
 and private situation towards me. He is highly 
 pleased with the conduct of my great friends, and 
 will join most heartily in it. In my private affairs, 
 he is the first to settle everything to my satisfaction, 
 and to make me perfectly easy, as he has done: you 
 can't imagine how happy I am, 
 
 " Nor envy Bute his sunshine and his skies."* 
 
 * " Nor envied Jove his sunshine and his skies." 
 Last line of the third act of Addison's tragedy of" Cato."
 
 17(53.1 ABDICATION OF LORD BUTE. 165 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 RESIGNATION OF LORD BUTE. — ALLEGED MOTIVES FOR IT. — ORENVILLE 
 
 ADMINISTRATION. IMPRISONMENT AND LIBERATION OF WILKES. — 
 
 LEICESTER HOUSE SCHEME. ^^NEQOCIATIONS BETWEEN toRD BUTE AND 
 
 MR. PITT. MR, PITT's INTERVIEWS WITH THE KING. BEDFORD 
 
 ADMINISTRATION. DEATH OF DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE. PROPOSED 
 
 NEW MINISTERIAL ARRANGEMENTS. CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN LORD 
 
 HARDWICKE AND HIS BROTHER. 
 
 Lord Bute had borne his blushing honours ten 
 
 months, when he abandoned the post which he had 
 
 incurred so much obloquy to attain. His motives for 
 
 resignation still remain a mystery. The following is 
 
 the motive assigned by Viscount Royston, in a letter to 
 
 the Earl of Hardwicke. 
 
 "Bath, April 11, 1763. 
 
 " The alarms of Lord Bute's family about his personal 
 
 safety, are reported here to be the immediate cause of 
 
 this sudden and unexpected abdication.'^ I shall make 
 
 no rejlections on this strange scene; your Lordship 
 
 has already reflected much better for yourself. The 
 
 nil admirari of Horace seems in our days to be as 
 
 applicable to politics as it is to ethics and philosophy.'' 
 
 * This is the view taken by Mr. I\Iacaulay in his 2nd article on 
 Chatham.
 
 166 LMPRISONMENT OF WILKES. [l7G3. 
 
 Three days prior to the date of this letter, Mr. 
 Grenville was declared First Lord of the Treasury, 
 and Lords Egremont and Halifax Secretaries of State. 
 "Of the three," says Walpole, " Lord Halifax was by 
 far the weakest, at the same time, most amiable man. 
 His pride, like Lord Egremont's, taught him much 
 civility. He spoke readily and agreeably, and only 
 wanted matter and argument. He aimed at virtues 
 he could not support, or rather was carried away by 
 his vices than sensible of them," From other sources 
 we learn that he possessed a handsome person, elegant 
 manners, and a cultivated mind. 
 
 Mr. Macaulay considers "that the worst administra- 
 tion which has governed England since the Eevolution, 
 was that of George Grenville."* It was certainly a 
 very important one, for it had scarcely been installed 
 in oflSce, than it found itself involved in the ever 
 memorable squabble with the notorious John Wilkes, 
 at that time Member for Aylesbury. On the 23rd of 
 the month, being a fortnight after the formation of the 
 Grenville Ministry, appeared the famous " Number 
 Forty-five of the North Briton." In this paper, severe 
 strictures were passed on the conduct of ministers 
 in general, and on Lord Bute in particular. After 
 a week's deliberation, Wilkes was seized on a cjcneral 
 warranty and brought before Lords Halifax and Egre^ 
 mont, by whom he was committed to the Tower. His 
 demeanour on the occasion w^ould have served as a 
 warning to wiser men, against meddling with such a 
 
 * Macaulay 's " Essays," in one volume, p. 747.
 
 1763.] LIBERATION OF WILKES. 167 
 
 firebrand. On arriving at the place of his imprison- 
 ment, he wounded the stately pride of Lord Egremont, 
 by desiring to be confined in the same apartment where 
 his fiither, Sir William Windham, had been kept on a 
 charge of Jacobitism ; and the national vanity of Lord 
 Bute, by hoping that, if possible, he might not be 
 lodged where any Scotchman had been prisoner. 
 
 On the very day of his commitment to prison, his 
 friends procured a writ of habeas-corpus from the Court 
 of Common Pleas ; and on the 3rd of May he was brought 
 before Lord Chief Justice Pratt. In a speech, which 
 lasted an hour, Wilkes complained " that he had been 
 worse treated than any rebel Scot,"— a remark that 
 was hailed with loud acclamations by the crowd in 
 Westminster Hall. Three days afterwards, Pratt de- 
 livered his judgment, in which he declared that Wilkes 
 was " entitled to his privilege as a Member of Parliament, 
 because, although that privilege does not hold against 
 a breach of the peace, it does against what only tends 
 to a breach of the peace." Wilkes was in consequence 
 set at liberty. Immediately after the enlargement of 
 Wilkes, letters from the Honourable Charles Yorke and 
 Sir Fletcher Norton, the Attorney and Solicitor-General, 
 were presented to the Court, demanding to be admitted, 
 as the case concerned the King's interest. The Chief 
 Justice's answer to both was, that they had come too 
 late. Upon these proceedings, the Attorney-General's 
 brother. Viscount Koyston, wrote to his friend Dr. Birch 
 as follows : — 
 
 /
 
 I(j8 IMPRISONMENT OF WILKES. [\HJS. 
 
 " Dear Birch, " Bath, May the i oth, 1 763. 
 
 " Shall I congiatulate you on the discharge of your 
 old acquaintance? or shall I condole with you on the 
 licentious spirit, repugnant to all decorum and order, 
 which has appeared amongst the populace on this occa- 
 sion? or shall I lament that the proceedings of govern- 
 ment have not been conducted with all the propriety 
 and judgment one could wish? As a good Englishman 
 and a dutiful subject, I shall concur in the two last 
 particulars. The House of Commons is much obliged 
 to Lord C(hief) J(ustice) P(ratt), for I do not know, 
 that we ever claimed the privilege for ourselves, which 
 he has been pleased to allow us. Has our old Speaker 
 been consulted on the occasion? Did Pratt take any 
 notice of the warrant of apprehension^ which has the 
 word treasonable^ and leaves the messengers at large ? 
 Is it thought that any art or management was used to 
 bring down such great crowds to W— r H — 11. I 
 question whether the other Chief Justice will choose (if 
 he can help it) to have the affair brought into his 
 court. I presume it will be fought through all the 
 weapons, from the courts of justice to St. Stephen's 
 Chapel. We have a story here^ which I cannot give 
 credit to, ' that Lord H(alifa)x asked W — kes if he 
 was at the dinners,'"' and that the latter replied, that 
 he did not sit down to table, but only blew the coals.' " 
 
 * Note by Lord Hardwicke to his own letter. — " Tlie dinners were 
 amongst the opposition."
 
 17G3.] LETTER TO LORD HARDWICKE. 1 {)9 
 
 It was a favourite scheme of the Leicester House 
 faction, the moment an Administration was formed, to 
 open a negociation with the chiefs of the different 
 sections of Opposition, the object being to ensure a 
 greater degree of subserviency from the Ministers to the 
 wishes of the Crown. A plan of this nature was set 
 in operation shortly after Grenville entered upon his 
 functions of Premier, but, true to the principle of 
 " ruling by divisions," the Court treated with each 
 leader, to the exclusion of the other. Some of the 
 letters which follow will show the working of this 
 system. 
 
 THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE TO THE EARL OF HARDWICKE. 
 
 " Clarcmont, June 30th, 1763. 
 
 " Mr. Pitt mentioned the proposals made to him 
 hy my Lord Biite^ much in the same way that he had 
 done to the Attorney General, and that his answer was, 
 that he never would have anything to do with my Lord 
 Bute; that he is now thoroughly connected with us; 
 Avas determined to remain so, and to take all oppor- 
 tunities to do everything to bring us together . . . 
 
 "... Lord Granby is just come in, so I must finish 
 my letter sooner than I intended. I can't, however, 
 forbear repeating to yonr Lordship my thanks for your 
 kind and able conversation with my Lord Egremont, 
 and particularly in what your Lordship said of your 
 liumble servant, and the supposed declaration I had 
 made, though I am still ot the same opinion upon that 
 head that 1 ever was."
 
 170 NEGOCIATION BETWEEN BUTE AND PITT. [1703. 
 
 Note by second Lord Hardwicke : — 
 
 " N.B. It was in this conversation with Lord Egre- 
 mont that my father had a direct offer from the King 
 of President of the Council, then vacant, which he 
 very properly declined, but did not mention to the 
 Duke of Newcastle, to avoid jealousies, and to which his 
 Grace was liable." 
 
 " On this behaviour," says Walpole, referring to the 
 offers to Newcastle and Hardwicke — of that to Pitt 
 he was not aware — " the tliree ministers had deter- 
 mined to bring his Majesty to an explanation." As to 
 one of the three, Lord Egremont, he must have been 
 in error, seeing that he was the actual negociator of the 
 King with the ex-Chancellor. But there appears to be 
 no doubt that the other two made a strong remon- 
 strance to the King, that Grenville in particular "re- 
 proached his Majesty with violating the assurances he 
 had given them (the Ministers) that Lord Bute should 
 meddle no more, and with abandoning the Ministers he 
 had himself chosen." 
 
 The death of Lord Egremont, which occurred on the 
 2 1 st of August, hastened a negociation that had long 
 been on the tapis, between Lord Bute and Mr. Pitt, 
 which ended in the latter statesman being summoned to 
 attend the King at Buckingham House. The interview 
 lasted three hours, and Mr. Pitt considering himself 
 authorized to form an administration, Avrote an urgent 
 summons to the Marquis of Rockingham.
 
 1703.] LETTER TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. 171 
 
 RIGHT HON. W. PITT TO THE MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHAM. 
 
 " Jermyn Street, August 2Sth, 1763. 
 
 " A MATTER has opened which must make me very 
 impatient to learn your Lordship's sentiments. I will 
 in this critical situation venture to request of you to 
 be so good as to come immediately to town. Miij I 
 add that I shall esteem it a great favour if your Lord- 
 ship could engage Sir George Savile to take the same 
 journey, to whom I would write if I knew that my 
 letter would he sure to find him. Be assured, I shall 
 think any plan highly defective, in which a person of 
 such honour and ability does not take a share. I saw 
 the Duke of Newcastle at Claremont this morniuir, who 
 joins in wishing extremely that your Lordship would 
 come directly to town, as his Grace's desires on this 
 subject will best stand for my apology for the liberty 
 I am taking. I will add no more to your trouble than 
 to assure you of the great truth and respect with which 
 I am, &c., " W. Pitt." 
 
 Lord Eockingham forwarded a copy of this letter to 
 Sir George Savile, together with the following note 
 from himself: — 
 
 " I will only now say in general, it is my earnest 
 and steady opinion, that it is neither the conduct of an 
 honest or of a wise man, to abet tlie skimming over 
 the present confused system, but is the duty of us both 
 to give what help we can towards a perfect and pro-
 
 172 MR. PITT'S IiNTERVIEW WITH THE KING. 1703.] 
 
 bably permanent cure. Whether the time is yet come, 
 is a matter difficult to judge upon; but I hope and 
 trust that nothing will be entered upon without the 
 fullest and clearest prospect of stability." 
 
 The above letter is dated " Birom, Monday night, 
 half-past twelve, August 29th, 1763." On the morn- 
 ing of that day, Mr. Pitt had a second interview with 
 the King, when his Majesty suddenly broke up the 
 conference, by saying, " Well, Mr. Pitt (I see, or I 
 fear), this will not do; my honour is concerned, and I 
 must support it." The following day, the 30th, Lord 
 Shelburne, who had been the channel of communitiation 
 with Mr. Pitt, wrote to that statesman, felicitating him 
 personally on a negociation being at an end, which 
 carried through the whole of it such shocking marks 
 of insincerity, and three days afterwards resigned his 
 post as President of the Board of Trade. 
 
 VISCOUNT ROYSTON TO DR. BIRCH. 
 
 "Oct. 4, 1763. 
 
 " It were endless to attempt detecting the falsities 
 Avhich are inserted in all the relations of the late very 
 extraordinary negociation; but I cannot help contra- 
 dicting one fact, which is positively inserted in the 
 narrative you refer to in your last of the 1st instant, 
 viz., that the K(ing) saw none of his ministers between 
 the Satiirdaj/ and the Monday. Now T have the best 
 authority for saying tliat Mr. Grenville was in the
 
 1764.] LETTER TO LORD IIARDWICKE. 173 
 
 closet on Friday, luid was introduced again on Saturday 
 after the other gentleman '" left it. N.B. This is true ; 
 he told my brother so. It seems remarkable, and tends 
 to confirm the public opinion of the present jumhlc at 
 Court, that the papers published in defence of the 
 
 A n, throw out pretty strong insinuations against 
 
 Lord B., and that his Lordship's advocates are as free 
 in reflecting on the M rs. With me, 
 
 " ' Xros Tyriusve milii nullo disciimine.' " 
 
 The following extract of a letter from the Honourable 
 Charles Yorke to his brother, second Earl of Ilardwicke, 
 written shortly after the decease of their father, f has 
 reference to some attack upon the Memoirs of the ex- 
 Chancellor by Lord Northington, who succeeded him 
 on the Woolsack in 1756. 
 
 " My dear Lord, "Saturday evening, Mar. 25 (1764). 
 
 " Wliat you mention of the Lord Chancellor I never 
 heard till this evening, from Dr. Plumptre, who had it 
 from my brother John. It is very gross and unde- 
 served. 
 
 " I am not aware of the custom to which another 
 paragraph in the same letter appears to refer. 
 
 " But allow me to say, that if your Lordship sends 
 rings to the Judges^ I hope you will send one to the 
 Lord Chancellor, that sucli a trifle may not be marked. 
 I take it for granted that you called at his door upon 
 
 * Mr. Pitt, 
 t Lord Hardwicke died on Tuesday the 6th of March, 1 7G4.
 
 174 LETTER TO CHARLES YORKE. [l764. 
 
 taking your seat in the House of Lords. If any acci- 
 dent prevented it, I know that he is capable of being 
 moved by such trifles. It is the temper of many. But 
 I can only add, as to myself, that in truth, a situation 
 between enemies and friends, I know that (Avithout 
 management and temper) it will be impossible for me 
 to do anything, but retire at once into the country, out 
 of a profession which is independent of everything but 
 that impertinence which may be created by those whom 
 the King places in the great offices of it." 
 
 Note by second Lord Hardwicke : — " After Northing- 
 ton's language in the House of Lords, I did not wait 
 upon him, nor (I think) send him a ring. My brother 
 was too delicate and nice. He was above being hurt 
 by the impertinence of any Chancellor. 
 
 " H." 
 
 THE EARL OF HARDWICKE TO THE HON. CHARLES YORKE. 
 " Dear Brother, ' " St. James's Square, July 26, 1764. 
 
 " I wish you would find a quarter of an hour to let 
 me know in three lines, whether you saw the D. of 
 Devon again, and what language he held. I ask 
 because Jones told me he had made some thunderino- 
 declaration to Mr. Pitt, about acting more vigorously 
 next session, with an intimation that iiis friends would 
 do so, Avhatever part he (Mr. P.) thought proper to 
 take. 
 
 " I do not find that this made the Great Commoner 
 more explicit. Tones says, the afl'air of the interview
 
 17G4.] DUKE OF BEDFORD PRESIDENT OF COUNCIL. 175 
 
 with Ltl. B. is less believed than it was a fortnidit 
 
 ago. 
 
 "Jones picks up nothing material; yet messengers 
 come and go between ns. What is now talked of is, 
 that the Parliament may now meet before Christmas, 
 on account of the supply. 
 
 " Lord Bute makes many hugger-mugger visits at 
 Richmond, in a way neither creditable to his master 
 nor himself." 
 
 In a letter to Dr. Birch, written at about this time, 
 Lord Hardwicke asks, 
 
 "Is it true that Mrs. Pritchard was greatly ap- 
 plauded the other night, upon speaking a line against 
 favourites, in the ' Careless Husband?' If the audiences 
 begin to be so much on the catch, Mr. G(arric)k must 
 be cautious what plays he acts. If it would not appear 
 pedantic, I might remind you that Tully often mentions 
 such circumstances Avtich passed at the theatres, as 
 indications of the temper of the people." 
 
 Soon after the failure of the negociation with Mr. 
 Pitt in 1763, the Duke of Bedford became President of 
 the Council, and the ostensible head of the Government. 
 
 The Bedford Administration experienced no better 
 treatment than its predecessors. Like Grenville, the 
 Duke stipulated for that which the King himself pro- 
 posed, namely, the exclusion of Lord Bute from his 
 presence, and from any participation in public affairs.* 
 
 * The Duke of Bedford to the Duke of Marlborough, May 19, 
 1765.
 
 170 DEATH OF DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE. {\HM. 
 
 And the f\ivoiirite liimself wrote to tlie King, stating 
 that for his Majesty's service, as well as for his own 
 ease, he Avas resolved to remain at his house the ensuing 
 winter. 
 
 " He kept the word of promise to the ear, 
 But broke it to the hope." 
 
 He passed, it is true, the winter at Luton Hoo, 
 returned to town early in the spring, and went publicly 
 to Court and to the House of Lords. " His return," 
 says Wiffen, " was regarded by the Duke of Bedford 
 as an entire infraction of the bond on which he had 
 consented to take office." 
 
 Since the retirement of the Duke of Newcastle from 
 the Ministry, tlie Duke of Devonshire became the ac- 
 knowledged leader of the Whigs, but his health ren- 
 dered him unequal to the task which the partiality 
 of his friends assigned him. He was obliged to be 
 frequently absent from town, and at length retired 
 to Spa, where he died on the 2nd of October this year, 
 in the forty-fifth year of his age. 
 
 The rumours of disagreement between Lord Bute 
 and the Ministers seeming to offer an opening for some 
 new ministerial arrangement. Lord Hardwicke thus 
 wrote to his brother, Mr. Charles Yorke, on the 11th of 
 April, 1764:— 
 
 " Dear Brother, 
 
 " I had my confab with his Grace of Devon this 
 morning, whom I find (juitc without plan or system, 
 much dissatisfied with Mr. Pitt, whom he knows nothing
 
 1764.] LETTER TO CHARLES YORKE. 177 
 
 about, and finds be can make notbing of. He lays little 
 weigbt on Cbarles Townsbend's information about ac- 
 commodations at Court. I told bis Grace, points must 
 be waited for — tbat I saw none at present of magnitude 
 sufficient to declare upon .... 
 
 " Tbe Duke of Devonsbire goes to Newmarket at tbe 
 end of next week. I only mention tbis in case you bad 
 tbougbts of waiting upon bim. I tbink if you saw tbe 
 Duke of Bedford, you migbt find out wbetber be would 
 undertake any conciliatory scbeme. My idea is, tbat 
 Lord Bute, if pressed, would prefer Pitt and Temple, 
 because tbey bave fewest followers and carry tbe greater 
 popularity. 
 
 " Ilis Grace of Bedford bas taken antipatby to Lord 
 Bute, on account of tbe transaction of last summer. I 
 tbink all tbis Paddy Noddy to little purpose. In losing 
 Lord H(ardwicke) we are at sea witbout pilot or 
 rudder. 
 
 " P.S. — Tbe Duke of Devonsbire said be tbougbt 
 Pitt would be more tractable, if we sbowed tbat we 
 could go on witbout bim. My opinion of Pitt is, tbat 
 be will neitber lead nor be driven. He is animal sui 
 generis — un unique. Tbe Duke admitted bis bealtb 
 made bim less to be depended upon." 
 
 Tbe first paragrapb in tbe following letter evidently 
 bas reference to tbe removal of one of tbe Duke of 
 Newcastle's protc'gcs from tbe Palace Gardens ; tbe 
 second, to tbe dismissal of General Conway from tbe 
 colonelcy of a regiment and tbe post of Groom of tbe 
 
 VOL. L N
 
 178 DUKE OF NEWCASTLE [l764. 
 
 Bedchamber, for voting against Ministers in the ques- 
 tion of " General Warrants," — a subject which, as Lord 
 Hardwicke surmised, became the cheval de bataille of 
 the opposition in the next session. 
 
 THE EARL OF HARDWICKE TO THE HON. CHARLES YORKE. 
 
 " Dear Brother, "St. James's Square, Aug. .3, 1764. 
 
 " I send back his Grace's letter, and think much does 
 not arise out of it. The turning out of Greening was 
 an ill-natured act ; but there is no making that a con- 
 stitutional point, and the Duke chooses to forget that he 
 stands ill with the King as well as the Minister, and 
 that a domestic gardener to a Royal Palace is one of 
 those places which kiiigs think they may ^nake free 
 with the disposal of 
 
 " His Grace's declaration to Mr. Pitt was premature, 
 unless he knew better how to conduct, to increase, and 
 strengthen his opposition ; but the great cheval de 
 bataille will be, I apprehend, Conway's affair ; and 
 that^ to use a phrase of Sir William Temple's, ' will 
 make a meal's meat, but will not keep the house.' 
 
 1 >> 
 
 THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE TO THE EARL OF HARDWICKE. 
 
 "Sept. 8, 1764. 
 " The great reports of the Duke of Bedford's uneasi- 
 ness with my Lord Bute are, I believe, true. But it is 
 very uncertain what, if any, material consequence will 
 arise from it. I hear the language of Woburn is, that
 
 17G4.] TO LORD IIARUWICKE. 179 
 
 the Duke of Bedford knows nothing of my Lord Bute, 
 has seen him but once, and does not know Avhcn he 
 shall see him again; that the Duke of Bedford is 
 Minister; that Lord Bute, the favourite, may obtain 
 favours for his particular friends, as was the case of 
 the regiment given to Colonel Fletcher. '"' That may be 
 wrong, but that was a small object. That the Duke 
 was coming up to town the 22nd of this month, and 
 would then go to Bath.f If this be true, it does not 
 look as if his Grace thought himself the Minister, or 
 troubled himself much about administration." 
 
 * " The affair of Turk's Island, and the promotion of Colonel 
 Fletcher over thirty-seven older officers, are the chief causes which 
 have ripened our heats to such a height." — Walpole. 
 
 t " The Duke of Bedford has crossed the country from Bath to 
 Woburn without coming to town." — Walpole to Hertford, Nov. 9, 
 1764. 
 
 N t
 
 180 DISMISSAL OF GENERAL CONWAY. [l765. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 arbitrary dismissal of general conway and other military 
 
 officers. letters relating to the regency bill. duke of 
 
 Cumberland's statement of negociation for change of minis- 
 ters. — character of lord lyttleton. — protectionist riots. 
 — appointment of commander of the troops. — correspond- 
 ence on the riots. — prorogation of parliament. — ministerial 
 difficulties of the king. 
 
 The violent ministerial measures of the preceding 
 session, naturally aroused a determined resistance on 
 the part of the Whigs. The dismissal of General Con- 
 way and other military officers from their employments, 
 as a royal penalty for their votes in Parliament, was no 
 ordinary cause of provocation, and was regarded as a 
 dangerous example, as well as a most unjust and arbi- 
 trary proceeding. With the view of inducing Mr. Pitt 
 to co-operate with them in their opposition to the Court, 
 Lord Rockingham was prevailed upon by the leading 
 Whigs to pay the retired and refractory old statesman 
 a visit at Hayes, His errand, indeed, proved fruitless. 
 The Great Commoner condemned the dismissal of Con- 
 way ; but " the question," he said, " touched too near 
 upon prerogative; it ought to have been brought on 
 earlier in the session. He had never urged the subject 
 being mooted at all." In short, he produced doubts in
 
 1765.] LETTER TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. 181 
 
 Lord Rockingham's mind whether the cause he had at 
 heart might not be more prejudiced than benefited by 
 Mr. Pitt's presence in the House of Commons ; and he 
 returned to town, "less satisfied than ever with Mr. 
 Pitt."* 
 
 THE DUKE OF NEAVCASTLE TO THE MARQUIS OF 
 ROCKINGHAM. 
 
 "Bath, March 26, 1765. 
 
 "I AM more sorry than surprised, that your Lord- 
 ship found Mr. Pitt in the disposition you did, with 
 an appearance, and, I am afraid, with a real deter- 
 mination to remain inactive. It is agreeable to all 
 his declarations for this last year, and to what he so 
 positively declared in his letter to me. I doubt he is 
 searching for reasons to justify that resolution, — one, 
 I am sure, has not the least foundation. That we had 
 given up Ms war (and in that he means me only), for 
 he does me the honour always to fling all the blame upon 
 me, as I am persuaded your Lordship plainly perceived 
 by his discourse ; and greater injustice cannot be done 
 a man. Could I be such a fool as to give up Ms war, 
 as he called it? Who provided for it? Who raised 
 such immense sums for the support of it? Was it 
 Mr. Pitt or myself? I will be bold to say, Mr. Pitt 
 could not have done it; and am I to have all the re- 
 proach from Mr. Grenville and the enemies to the war, 
 for the load of debt which I had brought upon the 
 * Walpole's George the Thh-d, ii. 87.
 
 182 LETTERS RELATING TO [l766. 
 
 nation, for the support of it, and am to be told by- 
 Mr. Pitt that I had given up Jiis war? In short, 
 I have seen so much of this cruel part towards me, 
 that I am determined not to mind it, but to go on 
 with Mr. Pitt as I have done, wishing and doing every- 
 thing in my power that the public may have his assis- 
 tance. For I see how much it is wanted. The oppo- 
 sition is dwindled down to nothing, and Mr. Grenville, 
 for he is the man of consequence, and that does the 
 business. Let them say what they will, Mr. Grenville, I 
 say, will have champ libre, and nobody to oppose him." 
 
 The session of 1765 had been opened by the King 
 in person, but towards the end of March, his Majesty 
 was attacked by so serious an illness, that it became 
 necessary to make some provision for the contingency 
 of a long minority. Accordingly, on the 24th of April, 
 the subject of a Regency was brought before Parliament, 
 in a speech from the Throne. 
 
 THE EARL OF HARDWICKE TO THE HONOURABLE CHARLES 
 
 YORKE. 
 
 " Dear Brother, "St. James's Square, April 25, 1765. 
 
 " We [the Duke of Newcastle and himself] had no 
 conversation about the Regency Bill, except that I was 
 able to acquaint him that Lord Halifax had moved 
 to-day to take the King's speech into consideration on 
 Monday. I suppose the Bill will then be brought in. 
 
 " I was at the levce this morning ; the King avail
 
 1765.] THE REGENCY BILL. 183 
 
 fort bon visage. I walk in and out of St. James's like 
 a country lord, -whom nobody that knows anything has 
 anything to say to. . . . 
 
 " Lord Lyttleton (whom I saw this morning) appre- 
 hended the debate would be on your second reading. 
 A notion prevails that Mr. Pitt will attend in the 
 House. D. of Cumb. much hurt that the Princes of the 
 blood are not to be named in Council of Eegency. 
 All laid to the door of Lord Bute ; a scheme of his to 
 keep Queen, brothers, &c., dependent on his good word 
 with the K— ." 
 
 The "Memoriall" of the same writer affords some 
 additional observations upon the same subject. " While 
 the Regency Bill," says his Lordship, "was in the House 
 of Lords, the clause naming the King's brothers was 
 concerted, with the Duke of Cumberland, unknown to 
 the Ministry till the King sent it to them. They, to 
 return the compliment, framed the clause for omitting 
 the Princess Dowager, [and] procured the King's con- 
 sent to it. This raised a storm in the interior of the 
 palaces ; and the result of it, after many intrigues and 
 jarrings, was the overthrow of that administration." 
 
 An address was moved in the House of Lords by 
 Lord Lyttleton, to give the King the power to name 
 the person he would recommend. This was rejected by 
 eighty-nine to thirty-one. The Duke of Richmond then 
 moved that the Regency should consist of the Queen, 
 the Princess Dowager, and all the descendants of the late 
 King usually in England. On the following day. Lord
 
 184 THE REGENCY BILL. [1705. 
 
 Halifax moved the Duke of Richmond's words, with the 
 single omission of the Princess Dowager. The amend- 
 ment was agreed to. 
 
 The Regency Bill was read a second time on the 
 7th of May. On the 9th, Mr. Morton, Member for 
 Abingdon, Chief Justice of Chester, and well known to 
 be in the Princess Dowager's confidence, moved, with 
 the King's approval, and at Lord Northington's sugges- 
 tion, the insertion of her Royal Highness's name. 
 
 To Mr. Yorke, who had taken an active part in the 
 debate, his brother. Lord Hardwicke, wrote as follows. 
 
 " I HOPE you are well, after all your House of Com- 
 mons fatigue, where I think there have been strange 
 doings. Curiosity would engage me to attend the 
 House of Lords on Monday, when you send up the 
 Bill with your amendments; but as indisposition pre- 
 vented my being in the beginning of the fray, I think 
 it more prudent not to come in at the latter end. It 
 is impossible not to concur with your mention of the 
 P(rincess) of Wales's name, now the point has been 
 started; but surely the Court and the Ministry have 
 contrived to bring the House of Lords into a very 
 awkward situation, first inducing them to leap over 
 the stick one way, and then bringing them to jump 
 over it the other" 
 
 In consequence of the difiiculties attendant upon these 
 " intrigues and jarrings," the King solicited his uncle to 
 form a government for him. The Duke accepted the
 
 1705.] DUKK OF Cumberland's statement. 185 
 
 office, and, after sundry messages to Hayes, at last paid 
 Mr. Pitt a visit in person. No slight sensation was pro- 
 duced on the public mind by this condescension of the 
 proudest of Princes towards the proudest of Commoners. 
 
 Mr. Wright, in his " House of Hanover," has re- 
 produced a caricature of the day, illustrative of the 
 event. It is entitled " The Courier." From the door 
 of a hedge alehouse, protrudes a gouty foot. The sign 
 is an inflated bladder, on which is inscribed " Popu- 
 larity." Underneath is the further inscription, " W.P." 
 On a cantering horse appears a figure intended to repre- 
 sent the very portly person of the Duke of Cumberland, 
 and not unlike the statue of his Royal Highness in Ca- 
 vendish Square. He wears a large pair of Dettingen 
 boots and has a horn at his mouth. 
 
 "Yesterday," says Walpole, "the hero of Culloden 
 went down in person to the conqueror of America, and, 
 though tendering almost carte blanche, blancJiissime^ for 
 the constitution, and little short of it for Red Book 
 of places, brought back nothing but a flat refusal." 
 
 That this version was not the correct one, will appear 
 from the account given by the Royal Ambassador himself. 
 
 THE LUKE OF CUMBERLAND'S STATEMENT.* 
 
 " An account of the Negociation for the intended 
 change of Ministers, in April and May, 1765; recol- 
 lected some days after the whole was over, by help of 
 
 * To the best of my belief, the only two copies extant of this 
 " Statement " are in Lord Fitzwilliam's papers and my own family 
 collection of MSS.
 
 186 DUKE OF CUMBERLAND'S STATEMENT. [l765. 
 
 Lord Albemarle, whom I had entrusted in the whole 
 transaction, and who had his part also to act. 
 
 " On Easter Day, the 7th of April, 1765, I received 
 his Majesty's orders to attend him at the Queen's House, 
 before I set out for Newmarket. Accordingly, I at- 
 tended there at ten o'clock that same morning, when 
 his Majesty was pleased to inquire particularly after 
 my health (I having been all the winter extremely ill), 
 and said he had sent to me to meet him there, that 
 I might save myself the fatigue of going up the stairs 
 at St. James's, and of long standing in the drawing- 
 room.* To which gracious words I returned my most 
 dutiful thanks ; and rejoiced in seeing his Majesty also 
 thoroughly recovered. He said he was ; but that yet 
 his late illness had been an additional reason for him 
 to desire to speak to me; for that though he was now 
 well, yet God alone knew how soon an accident might 
 befall him. Therefore, he acquainted me that the 
 Thursday before, he had given to his four Ministers 
 
 * The Duke of Cumberland was at this time considered in a very 
 precarious state. In 1764, the wound he had received at Dettingen 
 broke out at Newmarket. It became " necessary to make an incision 
 of many inches in his knee. Ranby" (the sergeant-surgeon to the 
 King) " did not dare to propose that a hero should be tied, but was 
 frightened out of his senses when the hero would hold the candle 
 himself, which none of his generals could bear to do. In the middle 
 of the operation the Duke said, ' Hold 1' Ranby said, 'For God's sake, 
 sir, let me proceed now ; it will be worse to renew it.' The Duke 
 repeated, ' I say, hold,' and then calmly bade them give Ranby a 
 clean waistcoat and cap, ' for,' said he, ' the poor man has sweat 
 through these.' It was true, but the Duke did not utter a groan." — 
 Walpoles Letters to Lord Hertford, p. 154.
 
 I 
 
 1705.] DUKE OF CUMBERLAND'S STATEMENT. 187 
 
 an order for preparing a Bill of Regency, in case any 
 accident happened to him : that, heat being a good deal 
 allayed, was an additional reason to him for having it 
 done at a time when men's passions were abated. 
 
 " I returned his Majesty my most dutiful thanks for 
 this his gracious information: that I should give my 
 thoughts fully and openly, when I should see the draft 
 of the bill : that, as I rejoiced to see, then, no pressing 
 necessity for any precautions against such an unfor- 
 tunate event: therefore, I must own, I feared that 
 the importance of the subject-matter would, especially 
 at the end of a session, cause jealousies, which might 
 frustrate his Majesty's most gracious and generous in- 
 tentions on this occasion : that, as to our heats, which 
 his Majesty thought were allayed, I Avas sorry to be 
 obliged to say, that far from it ; that though the first 
 people did not express their opinions and their feelings 
 with as much warmth and as repeatedly as last year, 
 it proceeded not from their being over; but that they 
 were already communicated and spread out into the 
 lower class of mankind, from whence it would be more 
 difficult to eradicate them, and set their minds at 
 ease. 
 
 " I did perceive, or at least thought I did, that his 
 Majesty had still more on his mind to communicate, but 
 I did not think it respectful to endeavour to know more 
 fully what was in the King's mind. TJius ended the first 
 conversation I had had with tlie King in his closet or in 
 private since the peace. 
 
 " The first or second day at Newmarket my Lord
 
 188 DUKE OF CUMBERLAND'S STATEMENT. [l765. 
 
 Northumberland ^^ took occasion to call upon me, singly^ 
 one morning, under the pretence of going with me 
 to the stables to see my horses. Whilst in the stables 
 he much lamented both the King's situation and that of 
 his affairs; that with such an administration nothing 
 great could be done; that they lived from day to day, 
 whilst France was restoring their finances, paying off 
 their debt, and putting their naval force again in 
 condition. That, therefore, if ever it pleased France to 
 begin with us, they would find us in the same exhausted 
 state that had obliged us to grant them the favourable 
 terms of peace they had obtained from us. I entirely 
 agreed with his Lordship in the state in which he 
 represented his Majesty's affairs were, and that I was 
 fully sensible of the diboires and indignities which these 
 gentlemen in power insulted his Majesty with each day ; 
 instead of applying themselves to the good of the public 
 in general, or to restoring to his Majesty the affections 
 of his people. He said he rejoiced much in hearing me 
 
 * Sir Hugh Smithson, Bart, married Lady Elizabeth Seymour, only 
 daughter of Algernon Duke of Somerset, at whose death in 1 749 he 
 succeeded to the Earldom of Northumberland. He was created Duke 
 of Northumberland under the Chatham administration. Though pro- 
 fuse and ostentatious, he was a kind and amiable man, a patron of the 
 arts and of men of letters. He " had an advantageous figure, and 
 much courtesy in his address, which being supported by most expen- 
 sive magnificence, made him exceedingly popular with the meaner 
 sort." — Walpole. Lord Northumberland's son, Lord Warkworth, 
 having married Lord Bute's daughter, was admitted to the King's 
 private junto, which met daily at this time at Mr, Stow's. It 
 consisted of Lord Bute, Lord Northumberland, Lord Mansfield, Sir 
 Fletcher Norton, Mr. Stow, and Mr. Stow's brother, the Primate of 
 Ireland.
 
 17G5.] DUKE OF CUMBERLAND'S STATEMENT. 189 
 
 express these sentiments, which he had never doubted 
 to find in my breast, and which the King was convinced 
 were implanted there ; and that, if I had understood 
 his Majesty, the King was intentioned to talk more 
 fully himself over the state of his affairs, and that 
 nothing had prevented that total confidence of his 
 Majesty but fearing that he saw a coldness on my side 
 to endeavour to extricate him out of the troubles he 
 was engaged in. Whether the Lord Northumberland 
 sent a messenger to town to acquaint his Majesty with 
 this conversation, or no, I know not ; but I am certain 
 that a messenger was sent to him from London, upon 
 the receipt of whom I had a second visit during the 
 week, which seemed to me more explicit, and to be 
 warmer in the King's desire for assistance. 
 
 " On the 16th of April, in the evening, I received 
 in town another visit from Lord Northumberland, 
 acquainting me it was by the King's pleasure and his 
 order that he had had those conversations with me at 
 Newmarket. I assured him of my readiness; but that 
 this Regency Bill, which was again upon the tapis^ was 
 of such importance, and of which I had not had the 
 least communication; that therefore I must humbly 
 deprecate the having any hand in whatever negocia- 
 tions might be, during this Bill's hanging over all our 
 heads, without any person among those who were con- 
 cerned being able to obtain two similar answers from 
 any two of his Majesty's servants in the law, or other- 
 ways ; that, even as to myself, I had reason to fear 
 and believe that my name was quite omitted, as well as
 
 190 DUKE OF CUMBERLAND'S STATEMENT. [l705. 
 
 those of my nephews. The Lord Northumberhind, in 
 an awkward manner, denied his having at least any 
 knowledge of such a design ; but must stop the nego- 
 ciation till things were riper for it. On Wednesday, the 
 next day, we (Lord Albemarle and I) went into the 
 country ; but at night I heard from the House of 
 Lords, that not only my nephews and myself were 
 totally left out, and that there were disputes whether or 
 no it should be the Queen, by name, or the Queen or 
 any of the Koyal Family. On which Lord Albemarle 
 went to town and expostulated roundly and warmly 
 with the Earl of Northumberland. The consequence of 
 which was, the King was pleased to signify to the 
 House his pleasure that my nephews and I should stand 
 fixed members of the Council of Regency. 
 
 " The 30th of April I set out for Newmarket, 
 leaving Lord Albemarle, and most of the lords indeed, 
 to attend the finishing of the Bill. During this week 
 the Bill was sent to the Commons, after several amend- 
 ments and several extraordinary divisions in the House 
 of Lords, wherein the Duke of Bedford had been so 
 extremely masterly, that had his Grace stuck to his own 
 opinion, he would have stood in a far dijSferent light 
 than he had ever stood in, or ever will stand in again. 
 For, after having amended and settled that part of the 
 Bill touching the Queen's Regency upon a clear, honour- 
 able, popular plan, he allowed these his amendments 
 to be totally overset by the House of Commons, and 
 passed this Bill contrary to his former just amend- 
 ments.
 
 1765.] DUKE OF CUMBERLAND'S STATEMENT. 191 
 
 " That day (Monday, May the 6th), very late in the 
 evening, my Lord Northumherland sent in to desire 
 to speak to me, acquainting me that he came to me 
 by his Majesty's orders, that I should endeavour to see 
 whether Mr. Pitt and Lord Temple, with the other 
 great Whig families, could not be brought to form him 
 a strong and a lasting Administration, which might 
 empower him to form systems at home and abroad, such 
 as the dangers of the times might require ; desiring 
 withal that this negociation might be carried on with 
 the utmost secrecy and celerity, as its magnitude would 
 allow of. 
 
 " In answer to all this, I desired the Earl of North- 
 umberland would lay me at the King's feet, and assure 
 him that I would endeavour all that lay in my power to 
 execute the important commission I was charged with. 
 That I feared his Majesty was convinced by the event, 
 that the Kegency Bill, with its different changes, had 
 superadded many difficulties; that, for to quit the 
 King's work in hand, I must be allowed to open myself 
 to Lord Temple and Mr. Pitt, as well as to the Duke of 
 Newcastle and the Marquis of Rockingham. 
 
 " On Tuesday, the 7th of May, I spoke to the Duke 
 of Newcastle and the Marquis of Rockingham, acquaint- 
 ing them with the orders I was charged with from his 
 Majesty, and that the King had been pleased to chalk 
 out for all our joint considerations the following out- 
 lines of Administration, viz. Mr. Pitt to be Secretary of 
 State with Mr. Charles Townshend, Secretary of State 
 also; Lord Northumberland, First Lord of the Trea-
 
 192 DUKE OF CUMBERLAND'S STATEMENT. [l765. 
 
 sury ; the Duke of Newcastle and Earl Temple, one or 
 the other President, the other Privy Seal; and Lord 
 Egmont First Lord of the Admiralty; and that the 
 other noblemen, and others who were to come in, should 
 be, as much as possible, considered in the new arrange- 
 ment to be formed. 
 
 " I should do injustice to both these Lords, if I did 
 not remark their zeal for the execution of his Majesty's 
 great and just views ; only the Marquis objected to any 
 employment for himself, believing he might be of more 
 use as an independent man, than personally engaged in 
 the service ; and we agreed that whilst those two Lords 
 were sounding our friends in town, the Earl of Albe- 
 marle should repair to Hayes, to communicate, in my 
 name, to Mr. Pitt (who was unable to come to town); 
 that as his health did not allow of my seeing him, and 
 secrecy prevented my going to Hayes, I charged him 
 (the Earl of Albemarle) to acquaint Mr. Pitt with his 
 Majesty's most gracious thoughts with regard to him 
 and the public; to assure him that the King had 
 pitched upon him as the man whose abilities made 
 him the most desirable to be employed at these times; 
 that his Majesty had chalked out the above-mentioned 
 arrangement, thinking Mr. Charles Townshend might 
 be the properest person to execute, whenever Mr. Pitt's 
 health should incapacitate him from either Court or 
 Parliament- attendance ; that he (Mr. Pitt) was sen- 
 sible that the eyes of the whole nation were now all 
 looking up towards him, and that should he not come 
 to the relief of his King and country, at this time
 
 1765.] DUKE OF CUMBERLAND'S STATEMENT. 193 
 
 both in danger, I greatly feared that he wouhl no 
 longer preserve that weight in this country which he 
 so justly bore. Lord Albemarle acquainted him also, 
 that the King's Ministers had taken such possession of 
 the Closet, that they scarcely acted with decency to 
 their master. 
 
 " In return to this, and much more that passed, in a 
 conversation of four hours, it concluded on Mr. Pitt's 
 part, without a negative : but insisting, Jirst, on the 
 restoration of all the officers of the army, as well as 
 many others, as had been displaced for their opposi- 
 tion; — secondly, on ample justice and favour being 
 shown to Chief Justice Vvsiit',— thirdly^ on a necessity 
 of making men's minds easy about the warrants^ as 
 well as the amending the unpopular clauses in the 
 Cyder Bill ; — fourthly, a necessity of restoring the re- 
 laxations got into both the navy and the army, and 
 preferring the officers for their services, and not for 
 dancing attendance; — as also, fifthly^ on a foreign sys- 
 tem of affairs, which he feared had been greatly 
 neglected, avowing himself still in Prussian sentiments, 
 which, he feared, would not render the closet more 
 favourable to him. 
 
 " On that same evening, I wrote to Lord Temple, at 
 Stowe, to desire I might see him upon very urgent 
 business, that I durst not communicate in writing ; and 
 ordered the same servant to leave another letter from 
 me, at Wakefield, for the Duke of Grafton. 
 
 " On Wednesday, May the 8th, before I was got out 
 of bed, the Duke of Grafton, arrived, having set out 
 
 VOL. L n
 
 194 DUKE OF CUMBERLAND'S STATEMENT. [l765. 
 
 immediately on the receipt of my letter. I informed 
 him with his Majesty's general ideas, and pressed him 
 most sincerely to take a part on this occasion, which 
 no man was more capable, both by parts and judgment, 
 to maintain; that, though I knew the dislike he had 
 to public employments, yet that he himself would regret, 
 ten years hence, having given up this opportunity of 
 serving the King most essentially, and serving the 
 public also. I proposed to him, if Secretary of State 
 should stagger him, that he would be First Lord of 
 Trade with the Cabinet -Council, as that would be 
 reckoned in the world to be short of what he had shown 
 himself fit for. 
 
 " It did not avail me, as he was equally sanguine 
 that the affair in general must succeed ; and that there 
 was no present need for him to engage in business; 
 yet that a place at Court was what he could not endure, 
 from the attendance requisite. Therefore, fearing his 
 stay in town might add to the other suspicions the 
 ministers would have, he would return directly into the 
 country, most heartily Avishing us success. 
 
 " The Duke of Newcastle and the Marquis of Rock- 
 ingham both repeated their assurances, that our friends 
 were warm; and that, if Mr. Pitt took the lead, our 
 numbers would be very considerable. 
 
 " While I was at dinner, the Lord Temple sent to 
 inform me of his arrival in town. I desired him to 
 meet me at my house at six that evening. At six 
 we accordingly met, and I cannot help saying that I 
 think he was more verbose and pompous than Mr. Pitt;
 
 1765.] DUKE OF CUMBERLAND'S STATEMENT. 195 
 
 nor do I think so near concluding. I again stated to 
 him his Majesty's situation, displeased with his present 
 ministers, both for their behaviour in the Closet, and 
 that the King found tliem extremely dilatory in public 
 affairs. Wherefore his Majesty had chalked out for the 
 beginning of an arrangement, Mr. Pitt and Mr. Charles 
 Townshend, Secretaries of State ; the Earl of Northum- 
 berland, First Lord of the Treasury ; the Duke of New- 
 castle and Lord Temple, — one President, the other 
 Privy Seal; and Lord Egremont, First Lord of the 
 Admiralty; and had been pleased to order me to treat 
 with him and Mr. Pitt, as well as with those Lords 
 that formed the head of the Whig party, whom the 
 King looked upon as his best friends, and who had 
 always supported his Hoyal Family. He made great 
 expressions of duty, deprecating any public situation 
 whatever; but at the end of a very long and tedious 
 conversation he desired to ask tliree questions. The 
 first was, whether it was his Majesty's intention to 
 restore the officers of the army and others. The second, 
 that satisfaction must be made to the public for the 
 zvarrants, favour shown to Lord Chief Justice Pratt, 
 and the system of affairs at home must be entirely 
 changed. The third, that they might know the situa- 
 tion of foreign affairs, to see whetlicr there was still a 
 possibility of following what they thought the only 
 true system for this country. But, even then, sup- 
 posing the answers from his IMajesty should be both 
 favourable and gracious, they gave me no latitude 
 whatever to assure his Majesty of their readiness to 
 
 2
 
 196 DUKE OF CUMBERLAND'S STATEMENT. [ 1765. 
 
 come into his service. I strongly represented to them 
 the impropriety, in any negociation whatsoever, but 
 much more so when it was with the King; that as 
 to the first question, I need not ask it, as I had his 
 Majesty's most gracious promise on that., without my 
 having asked it. That as to the second proposition, I 
 could assure him it was the King's intention to do 
 handsomely by Lord Chief Justice Pratt, which was the 
 strongest proof his Majesty could give to his people, 
 when he supported by favours those judges who should 
 dare to stand up for the defence of the liberties of his 
 subjects; and that, therefore, I should hope less or 
 nothing need be said in parliament relative to this 
 affair ; as it was never the duty of any well-wisher to 
 King or Constitution, to venture to trace exactly the 
 law-boundaries of the King's prerogative, or the pri- 
 vilege of his people. 
 
 " All I said on this occasion was extremely fruit- 
 less, and I was sorry to see it would be necessary that 
 something should be done parliamentary to ease the 
 minds of these gentlemen. As to the third question, 
 relating to Foreign Affairs, after much disputing, and 
 stating p'o and con the impossibility of there being 
 time or means of stating the present view of foreign 
 affairs clear enough to enable them, as yet, to say 
 anything on that point, they desired that the question 
 might be: — Whether his Majesty was pleased to in- 
 tend a counter-system to be formed to the House of 
 Bourbon. 
 
 This conversation, though here stated as that of the 
 
 u f
 
 1765.J DUKE OF CUMBERLAND'S STATEMENT. 197 
 
 Wednesday alone, includes the purport of that of the 
 Thursday also, Avheii he returned from Hayes ; and on 
 my understanding him to speak for Mr. Pitt as well 
 as for himself, he objected, and desired Lord Albemarle 
 would make one jaunt more to Hayes, to know whether 
 Mr. Pitt's final answer would be of the same nature ; 
 and such as it proved I will again now recapitulate 
 as nearly as I can, which was: — That he (Mr. Pitt) was 
 rejidy to assist his Majesty's affairs, as a private person, 
 as far as they should agree with the general idea of 
 measures that had been laid down; but that neither 
 Lord TemjDle nor he could engage themselves any fur- 
 ther, until his Majesty should deign to answer their 
 doubts, stated in the three questions ; that they were 
 highly sensible of his Majesty's grace and favour, in 
 having condescended thus far towards them. 
 
 " Thus far, 1 have accounted to the Friday evening, 
 May the 10th, for all that passed in the negociation 
 with these two persons chiefly; as I had no difficulties 
 with our friends, but a little too much caution, not 
 caring to engage without T\lr. Pitt. Of this number I 
 must except the Marquis of Kockingham, who from pri- 
 vate reasons and inclination, prefers a private life, and 
 really thinks he might be equally useful to his King and 
 country ; yet when he saw the shyness of our friends he 
 shook off his natural dislike and was ready to kiss tlie 
 King's hand in whatever shape was most for the service 
 in general. To this resolution I flatter myself his 
 personal friendship for me had some share, seeing 
 the distressed situation my friends had left me in, from
 
 198 DUKE OF CUMBERLAND'S STATEMENT. [l765. 
 
 their fears of stirring hand or foot without Mr.|Pitt at 
 their head. 
 
 " Late this Friday evening, Lord Northumberland 
 desired to see Lord Albemarle, when he expressed the 
 King's impatience for a determination, and agreed to 
 call on me the next morning at eight o'clock. Accord- 
 ingly, on Saturday morning he came. I desired he 
 would acquaint his Majesty that it was with the utmost 
 concern I was obliged to inform him that, in answer to 
 his gracious oiFers, I had nothing to return but compli- 
 ments and doubts; that he (Lord Northumberland) 
 might inform his Majesty of their three questions^ 
 though I had told them that I did not think it decent 
 to propose them, when the King's answer should noways 
 bind them; and his Majesty would be at liberty, either 
 to order them to be answered, or leave the negociation 
 there; that I had done my utmost, and that though I 
 had failed, yet it was not my fault, nor that of my 
 friends, any further than the timidity and fear of acting 
 without Mr. Pitt — that the negociation being now at an 
 end, I humbly hoped for his Majesty's leave to return 
 into the country, there to lament over my inutility in 
 the King's service. He stopped me and desired I would 
 not leave London that day, as perhaps he might have 
 some fresh message from his Majesty. 
 
 " It will be necessary here to give an account of a 
 trifling event in itself, but which Avas artfully worked 
 up, and did his Majesty's negociations the utmost harm, 
 as it represented the King's desire of amending his 
 Administration, and, therefore, parting with the Duke
 
 1765. J UUKE OF CUMBERLAND'S STATEMENT. 199 
 
 of Bedford would look like the giving liim up to the 
 incensed mob. 
 
 " The whole winter there had been heavy complaints 
 that so many French silk stuflfs were introduced, that 
 our looms stood still, and numbers of families were 
 starving for want of work in Spitalfields, Moorfields, &c. 
 Mr. George Grenville countenanced a Bill in the House 
 of Commons, intended for their relief; but, as I have 
 been informed, it would noways have turned out either 
 to their advantage or to trade in general. This Bill, 
 after much canvassing in the House of Commons, was 
 transmitted to the Lords. Here, unluckily, though 
 perhaps not unjustly, the Duke of Bedford takes up the 
 Bill and throws it out, without a second reading or com- 
 mitting of it. This haughty treatment was on the 
 Monday the 15th of May, the same day that the House 
 of Lords went through the Kegency Bill. Several of 
 the master-weavers who attended at the bar of the 
 House, resented this treatment as they called it, threat- 
 ening that they and their people should endeavour to 
 petition the King for redress. On Tuesday they came 
 down in great numbers, but insulted no one, and the 
 King being gone to Richmond that day, they returned 
 home. On Wednesday they came and beset the House 
 of Parliament ; but piqued themselves on behaving 
 respectfully to his Majesty, who came to the house that 
 day. But then, they declared they would have satis- 
 faction of the Duke of Bedford, attempted to insult him, 
 and broke his coach-glass as he drove through them. 
 Hereupon the mob resolved to go to Bedford House to
 
 200 DUKE OF CUMBERLAND'S STATEMENT. [1765. 
 
 pull it down and murder the Duke. All the Guards, 
 horse and foot, that were in or about the town, were 
 ordered up, and some mischief was done, especially in 
 Bloomsbury Square, where the proclamation was obliged 
 to be read before they dispersed. This was the last 
 and only weak effort of a deluded but half-starved people. 
 But though they were quiet and submitted, yet it was 
 taken up with such warmth, and such ungenerous 
 innuendoes that it raised a flame in the House, which 
 served them very usefully on this occasion ; but which 
 zeal died instantly on His Majesty's reinstating them 
 into his service again; and on letters from the Earl 
 of Halifax to Lord Hillsborough, wrote to communicate 
 to the master weavers, assuring them the Bill should 
 pass both Houses. 
 
 " On Saturday afternoon, May 11, about five o'clock, 
 being just sat down to dinner with my sister at her 
 house, the Marquis of Eockingham and the Earl of Al- 
 bemarle came to me from the Earl of Northumberland, 
 acquainting me that I was hardly gone from my house 
 before the Earl of Northumberland arrived there; and 
 finding them there he desired them to inform me that 
 he was tliat moment arrived from Richmond, and that 
 Lord Northumberland believed his Majesty would desire 
 me to go in person to Hayes ; that I might take Guards 
 with me, if I pleased, as the King no longer intended 
 the negociation should be carried on in secret. I set 
 out for the Lodo;e as soon as mv set of horses could be 
 put to, and I arrived a little after six, and staid till past 
 ten. I fo)ind the King much agitated, and after the
 
 1766.] DUKE OF CUMBERLAND'S STATEMENT. 201 
 
 most gracious reception, expressed his desire to know 
 what had passed with Lord Temple and Mr. Pitt; which 
 I did in the most ample manner, agreeable to all that 
 has been related before. The King said, that notwith- 
 standing all that had passed, he would still have me 
 try what I could do personally at Hayes, and the better 
 to put me au fait of the true state of his affairs he 
 went through, in a masterly and exact manner, all that 
 had passed since Lord Bute's resigning the Treasury. 
 He also went through Mr. Pitt's two audiences of Au- 
 gust, 1763; particularizing, with great justness, the cha- 
 racters of several persons who are now upon the stage, 
 or who are but just dropped off. In short, it was a 
 conversation too important (I hope) to forget; but 
 improper for pen and ink. 
 
 " Sunday, May the 12th, Lord Albemarle and I set 
 out for Hayes, between nine and ten in the morning ; 
 and just before we set out I desired Lord Temple might 
 have a note to meet us at eleven. I got to Hayes, 
 and kept Mr. Pitt tete-d-tcte for an hour and a half, 
 before Lord Temple joined us and Lord Albemarle. I 
 repeated to Mr, Pitt the King's most sincere desire of 
 seeing affairs both at home and abroad carried on with 
 more spirit and activity than he was able to do with 
 this present Administration. That his Majesty had 
 looked round, and found none so proper to assist him in 
 reinstating affairs as he (Mr. Pitt); that, therefore, as 
 great marks as the King could give of his sincere desire 
 for his assistance, he had ordered me personally to go 
 down and bring him to Court, where his Majesty desired
 
 202 DURE OF CUMBERLAND'S STATEMENT. [l765. 
 
 he would take an active part. I represented to him 
 the manner in which this Administration used his Ma- 
 jesty, and that no time was to be lost, as the Parlia- 
 ment must be soon up; that this country looked up 
 to him as the man who had been the author of the great 
 successes during the war; that they almost universally 
 wished him at the head of public affairs; the public 
 affairs requiring as much spirit in their present situa- 
 tion as they might have done during the war. 
 
 " He began his answer by desiring that he might be 
 laid at the King's feet ; that he was confounded at the 
 honour which it pleased his Majesty to think of him at 
 all; but much more so for that distinguished mark of 
 his grace and favour, which he received by my personal 
 visit; that he was almost rendered an invalid by the 
 gout ; but that he had still vigour and strength of mind 
 to undertake business, if he saw a probability of success ; 
 that, as to foreign affairs (which he began with) he was 
 afraid that his personal ideas were so much disliked at 
 Court; he would even own, that perhaps nine men in 
 ten in the kingdom were against him in opinion, but 
 that yet it was his opinion, and therefore it rendered 
 him, if not totally improper to enter into his Majesty's 
 Council, at least it would incapacitate him from acting 
 in the intended sphere of Secretary of State, as, in 
 honour, he never could set his hand to what was dia- 
 metrically opposite to his opinion. That in any other 
 situation, he would give his negative or single voice in 
 Council without any further consequence attending 
 thereon ; that, without foreign affairs were altered, he
 
 1765.] DUKE OF CUMBERLAND'S STATEMENT. 203 
 
 could see but little hopes that other things, equally 
 necessary, would follow ; and then repeated the three 
 questions which have already been mentioned. First, 
 that a counter-alliance be formed to the House of 
 Bourbon ; secondly, that the officers particularly, as 
 well as others, who had been turned out for their opinions 
 in Parliament^ should be restored ; thirdly, that some- 
 thing must be done to put people's minds at ease with 
 regard to the illegality of the warrants." 
 
 Here ends the Duke of Cumberland's narrative. He 
 infers, rather than states, that his mission was unsuc- 
 cessful. If Pitt had been guided by his political prin- 
 ciples, he would at once have coalesced with Lord Rock- 
 ingham and his friends. But, influenced by Temple 
 (who wished the " brothers," as they were called, should 
 form a government of themselves), he declined the 
 overtures of the Court, and it is said, that at parting 
 he mournfully addressed his brother-in-law with Virgil's 
 lines : — 
 
 " Exstinxti me teque, soror, populumque patresque 
 Sidonios, urbemque tuam." * 
 
 On the 18th of May, Mr. Grenville waited upon the 
 King, with the speech which was to close the session. 
 "There is no hurry," said the King; "1 will have the 
 Parliament adjourned, not prorogued." — " Has your 
 Majesty any thoughts of making a change in your 
 Administration?" inquired Grenville.— " Certainly," was 
 the reply, "I cannot bear it as it is." — "I hope your 
 
 * Virg. IEx\. iv. 682.
 
 1^ 
 
 204 CHARACTER OF LORD LYTTLETON. [1765. 
 
 Majesty will not order me to cut my own throat?" — 
 " Then," said the King, "who must adjourn the Parlia- 
 ment?" — "Whoever," replied the Minister, "your 
 Majesty shall appoint my successor." 
 
 This significant hint was followed by an intimation 
 from the four Ministers, that they should resign the 
 following Tuesday, if no administration was formed in 
 the meanwhile. 
 
 The Duke of Cumberland's services were again 
 placed in requisition, and the government was next 
 offered to George, Lord Lyttleton. 
 
 This noble poet, historian, and statesman, was the 
 eldest son of Sir Thomas Lyttleton, of Hagley, Worces- 
 tershire, to whose estates he succeeded in 1751. He 
 was one year older than his cousin, William Pitt, Earl 
 of Chatham. The two kinsmen were contemporaries 
 at Eton, entered Parliament the same year, made their 
 parliamentary debut on the same day, and for a long 
 period occupied the same bench in the House of Com- 
 mons. Lyttleton, Ayscough, whose sister he had mar- 
 ried, Richard, George, James, and Thomas Grenville, 
 and William Pitt, formed that political faction which 
 first went by the name of the " Cobham Squadron," and 
 was afterwards spoken of as the " Grenville connection." 
 
 When Pitt, " that terrible cornet of horse," was 
 stripped of his commission in the Blues by Walpole, 
 Frederick, Prince of Wales, indemnified him with the 
 post of Groom of the Bedchamber, and his poetical 
 cousin, Lyttleton, was at the same time appointed private 
 secretary to liis Royal Highness. George the Second,
 
 17G5.] CHARACTER OF LOUD LYTTLETON. 205 
 
 who could never understand, " what Boetry was good 
 for," showed but little favour to the gefms irritabile. 
 His son Frederick, on the contrary, took them under 
 his especial protection, and they repaid his patronage 
 with the incense of their muse. His Royal Highness's 
 secretary, who, though not yet known as an historian? 
 was already celebrated for his pastorals, and other 
 light pieces, came in for his full share of these flattering 
 eff'usions. Thomson, Shenstone, Hammond, Capel Lofi't 
 are among his warm eulogists, and though last, not 
 least. Pope says of him, 
 
 " Free as young Lyttleton her cause pursue, 
 Still true to virtue, and as warm as true." 
 
 But our business is rather with Lyttleton as a poli- 
 tician than as a poet. He filled, at different times, the 
 offices of Lord of the Treasury, Cofferer of the House- 
 hold, and Chancellor of the Exchequer. For the last of 
 these employments, he appears to have been but little 
 qualified, seeing that, " he never could comprehend the 
 commonest rules of arithmetic." 
 
 In 1751, Sir George was advanced to the dignity of 
 a Baron. 
 
 Lyttleton was born at seven months, and thrown 
 away by the nurse as a dead child, but upon closer 
 inspection was found to be alive. Though he lived to 
 the age of sixty-four, his appearance bespoke this in- 
 auspicious entry into the world. He was a pale, thin 
 man, with a very plain face, and with a frame so loosely 
 put together, that " every limb was an incumbrance."
 
 206 CHARACTER OF LORD LYTTLETON. [l765. 
 
 In one of the caricatures of the times, his tall, spare 
 
 form is portrayed, and attached to it is the following 
 
 doggrel : — 
 
 " But who be dat bestride a pony, 
 So long, so lean, so lank, so bony ? 
 Dat be de great orator Littletony." 
 
 Horace Walpole, with his usual love of antithesis, 
 thus describes his character. 
 
 " No man so propense to art was less artful; no man 
 staked his honesty to less purpose, for he was so awk- 
 ward that honesty was the only quality that seemed 
 natural to him. His cunning was so often in default 
 that he was a kind of beacon that warned men not to 
 approach the shallows on which he founded his attach- 
 ments always at a wrong season." 
 
 Lyttleton was a constant speaker in parliament. Of 
 his merits in that capacity there are different opinions. 
 His speech on the " Jew Bill," has been cited as a 
 model of oratory. He is said to have spoken well when 
 he studied his part. " With the figure of a spectre," 
 says Walpole, " and the gesticulations of a puppet, he 
 talked heroics through his nose." Lord Hervey's de- 
 scription of his mode of speaking is not more flattering : 
 ( " He had a great flow of words, that were uttered in 
 / a lulling monotony, and the little meaning they had 
 to boast of, was generally borrowed from common-place 
 maxims of moralists, philosophers, patriots, and poets, 
 crudely imbibed, half digested, ill put together, and 
 confusedly refunded."
 
 1765.] PROTECTIONIST lUOTS. 207 
 
 As Lord Lyttleton would give no answer to the Duke 
 of Cumberland, unless he were allowed to consult his 
 kinsmen, Pitt and Temple, his Koyal Highness recom- 
 mended the King to recall his ministers. 
 
 While the affairs of the kingdom were in this un- 
 settled state, the riots alluded to in the Duke of 
 Cumberland's narrative assumed a more alarminsc as- 
 pect. On Wednesday, the 15th of May, large bodies 
 of weavers, with black flags, went down to the Houses 
 of Parliament, and implored the King, who went in 
 person to give his assent to the Regency Bill, to inter- 
 pose in behalf of themselves and their families. The 
 Duke of Bedford, who was better versed in the science 
 of political economy than his contemporaries, defeated 
 this impolitic attempt to obtain what would now be 
 termed "protection to native industry." He, conse- 
 quently, became the principal object of the attack of 
 the rioters. One of the mob taking up a large paving- 
 stone, dashed it into his chariot. The Duke broke the 
 force of the blow by holding up his arm, but the stone 
 cut his hand and bruised his temple. Two days after- 
 wards, Bedford House was completely besieged by the 
 rioters, who could only be repelled by a body of cavalry. 
 Hence, it was deemed expedient to employ a larger 
 military force. 
 
 As the Ministers were now at open war with the 
 King, they made their arrangements necessary for the 
 suppression of the disturbances subservient to the as- 
 sertion of their authority. Aware that the King would 
 wish to appoint the Duke of Cumberland on the occa-
 
 208 APPOINTMENT OF COMMANDER OF TROOPS. [1765. 
 
 sion, they not only resolved to nominate another officer 
 to the chief command, but to insinuate very broadly 
 to the King that his uncle was no "favourite of the 
 people." 
 
 THE EARL OF HALIFAX TO THE KING. 
 
 May 20 (1765). 
 "His Majesty will determine whether it may not be 
 proper to appoint the Marquis of Granby to tlie chief 
 command of the troops to-morrow, with the Earl of 
 Waldegrave (who offers himself, as well as the Duke 
 of Richmond, for the service), or any other general 
 officers his Majesty shall please to appoint. Lord 
 Granby is a very popular man, and might save the 
 lives of these deluded wretches, which may be exposed 
 and sacrificed by another commander, equally well- 
 intentioned, but less a favourite of the people." 
 
 the king, in reply, writes, 
 
 " Lord Halifax, 
 
 " I will be at St. James's by twelve to-morrow, when 
 I will receive the address of the Lords, through the 
 white staves. 
 
 " As to the directions I shall think necessary to give, 
 for appointing any generals, I will also talk of that 
 when I shall see you at that hour at St. James's. 
 
 " A council must be ordered as for that hour. 
 
 " The regiment at Chatham must be instantly or-
 
 1765.] CORRESPONDENCE ON THE RIOTS. 209 
 
 dered to advance. You will, therefore, intimate this, 
 in ray name, to the Secretary at War."*= 
 
 The King sent copies of Lord Halifax's memorandum 
 and of his own answer, to the Duke of Cumberland, with 
 the following letter from himself: — 
 
 "Dear Uncle, 
 
 " The very friendly and warm part you have taken 
 has given me real satisfaction; but I little thought I 
 should be so troublesome to you, as the conduct of the 
 men I have employed forces me. I, in the whole course 
 of the transaction, had proposed consulting you in all 
 military affairs. But now, I must desire you to take 
 the command to-morrow morning, as Captain-General. 
 I should think, Lord Albemarle very proper to put your 
 orders in execution. I have sent this by one who has 
 my orders not to deliver it to any one but yourself, and 
 to bring an immediate answer, and also your opinion 
 where and how soon we can meet; for if any disturbance 
 arises in the night, Ushould think the hour proposed for 
 to-morrow too late. I beg you will show the enclosed 
 abstract of their very extraordinary paper to those 
 whom you think it may force to act a right part. 
 " I remain, dear Uncle, 
 " Your most affectionate nephew, 
 
 "George E." 
 
 * Lord Frederick Cavendish, who forwarded a transcript of these 
 letters to Lord Rockingham writes, "Here is the copy (Lord Albe- 
 marle's writing at the time) of the King's letter to Lord Halifax. I 
 think that the word instantlt/, in ordering the regiment to march from 
 Chatham rather shows he was not quite at ease about the riots." 
 
 VOL. L P
 
 210 CORRESPONDENCE ON THE RIOTS. [l765. 
 
 The Duke of Cumberland's answer — 
 " Sir, " Richmond. 
 
 " I shall ever obey your orders with obedience and 
 readiness. All I hope is, I am only ordered, and ex- 
 pected on this occasion. 
 
 *' I don't imagine this report ought to break a moment 
 of your Majesty's rest. I wish to God you had no more 
 formidable enemies tlian these poor wretches. 
 
 " I shall attend at eleven at St. James's with that zeal 
 and affection, 
 
 " Your most humble and dutiful attached Uncle, 
 " Servant, and subject, 
 
 " William." 
 
 Copies of the foregoing correspondence were forwarded 
 to Lord Eockingham by Lord Frederick Cavendish,* 
 with the following letter from himself: — 
 
 "May 21, 1765. 
 " Enclosed are the papers your Lordship saw last 
 night. His Eoyal Highness desires you would not 
 
 * Lord Frederick Cavendish, third son of William, third Duke of 
 Devonshire, godson of Frederick, Prince of Wales. He w^as, at this 
 time, Lord of the Bedchamber to the Duke of Cumberland, a Major- 
 General, and became eventually a Field-marshal. He was a good 
 cavalry officer, and distinguished himself on several occasions in the 
 Seven Years' War. 
 
 " Lord Frederick," says Walpole, " was lively, and having lived in 
 courts and camps, a favourite of the Duke of Cumberland, was by far 
 the most agreeable, and possessed the most useful sense of the whole 
 family."
 
 1705.] PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. 211 
 
 show any of tliem, except Lord Halifax's letter to the 
 King, and his Majesty's answer, and of those two you 
 may make such use as you think proper. 
 
 " Mr. Pitt said he thought, on such an information as 
 the Secretary of State had, it was his duty, though he 
 should happen to be under his Majesty's displeasure, to 
 suggest to him such measures as the exigency of the 
 time might require, but owned he should not have wrote 
 in such a style — thought his Majesty would do perfectly 
 right in appointing his Eoyal Highness Commander-in- 
 Chief, and he should say he approved of it. He was 
 sorry to find there was so much confusion, but did not 
 see a possibility of his being able to be of any service, 
 for as yet he had heard nothing that gave him room to 
 hope the Closet would be propitious to him. On the 
 contrary, my Lord Bute, whose influence was as strong 
 as ever, and whose notions of government were widely 
 different from his, would disincline the King to his 
 system; but expressed a wish that his Eoyal Highness 
 would persuade his friends to undertake the Kihg's 
 affairs. 
 
 " He drew a conclusion from the situation of the pre- 
 sent Ministers, that if they were turned out for no other 
 reason than supporting the measures they advised, it 
 augured ill for him, and therefore he must know why 
 they were turned out." 
 
 The Duke of Bedford and his colleagues, once more 
 in the ascendant, prorogued the Parliament on the 25th 
 of May. The King, thwarted in his attempts to get rid 
 
 p 2
 
 212 MINISTERIAL DIFFICULTIES OF THE KING. [1765. 
 
 of them, took every occasion of marking his resentment 
 against them. The Ministers proposed to make Lord 
 Waldegrave Master of the Horse to the Queen. Her 
 Majesty said, no Minister should interfere in her family, 
 and appointed the Duke of Ancaster. The first regiment 
 that fell vacant was bestowed on Lord Albemarle's bro- 
 ther, General Keppel. The young Duke of Devonshire 
 was, by the desire of George the Third, carried to Court 
 and greatly caressed by his Majesty, and it was inti- 
 mated to his uncles that the King regretted the manner 
 in which the Duke, his father, had been treated. 
 
 On the other hand, the Ministers were not passive 
 under these marks of the royal displeasure. On the 
 1 2th of June, the Duke of Bedford, Lords Sandwich and 
 Halifax, and Mr. Grenville, brought the King a remon- 
 strance, which took an hour in reading. When they 
 were gone, the King said, that, " If he had not broken 
 out into the most profuse sweat, he should have been 
 suffocated with indignation." * 
 
 Again was the Duke of Cumberland called upon to 
 extricate his royal nephew out of his difficulties. Over- 
 tures were renewed to Mr. Pitt, who after two audiences 
 of the King, undertook the direction of affairs, and even 
 nominated to several offices. Thus Lord Temple was 
 named for the Treasury, the Duke of Grafton for Secre- 
 tary of State with himself. Sir George Savile for Secre- 
 tary at War, and Saunders and Keppel for seats at the 
 Admiralty Board. The last interview with the King 
 was on the 22nd, on the following day the Duke of 
 
 * Walpole's George the Third.
 
 17(55.] LORD TEMPLE REFUSES OFFICE. 213 
 
 Newcastle wrote to Lord Albemarle. " I bad tbe 
 honour this morning of your Lordsbip's letter, wberein 
 you acquaint me, by His Koyal Higbness's order, witb 
 Mr. Pitt's acceptance :" an intimation which does away 
 with Adolphus's statement that Mr. Pitt " required time 
 to deliberate." * 
 
 But scarcely bad these arrangements been concluded, 
 when Temple declined to accept tbe Treasury. Tbe 
 effect which this refusal bad upon his brother-in-law will 
 be seen in tbe following letter from his iloyal Highness 
 the Duke of Cumberland : — 
 
 U.R.H. THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND TO THE EARL OF 
 
 ALBEMARLE. 
 
 " Windsor Great Lodge, June 26, 1765. 
 " I FEAR, by what I understood last night from bis 
 Majesty, that we are all afloat again, Lord Temple 
 having most peremptorily and determinately refused 
 bearing a part in any shape, great or small, in tbe 
 Administration to be formed. This declaration of Lord 
 Temple's prevents Pitt from taking a share, Avbich in- 
 deed most thoroughly and most heartily be had done. 
 He, Pitt, is to be this morning with tbe King again, 
 with whom he intended to part witb tbe utmost respect 
 and thankfulness, declaring with what great satisfaction 
 be would have undertaken affairs, if my Lord Temple 
 would have come in with him. He is also to declare 
 that he . would not have displaced either the Earl of 
 
 * Adolphus's History of George the Third, i. 180, '2nd edition.
 
 214 LETTER TO LORD ALBEMARLE. [l765. 
 
 Huntingdon,* Lord Pomfret,t Lord Denbigh, ;[: Lord 
 Litchfield, J Lord Despenser or Mr. Elliott, || or Mr. Os- 
 wald.^ Moreover, Mr. M'Kenzie to be restored to the 
 sine'CUYQ of Privy Seal of Scotland, though not to 
 power. 
 
 " These circumstances, so different from what I 
 hoped and really thought were in a manner settled, 
 must, I suppose, bring me to town again. In the mean 
 time, either before you leave London, or else, if you 
 don't propose coming from thence to-day, I should beg a 
 line from you by the return of the messenger, after 
 you have seen the Marquis and the Duke of Grafton, 
 informing them with the purport of this letter, and 
 observing to them, that I found the King already 
 intrenching himself with Pitt's promises of mercy in so 
 many particulars. By what I can pick up, Pitt is 
 completely mortified, and I am heartily sorry for it, as 
 he had entered more sincerely and cordially into the 
 King's service, nay, and went farther almost than the 
 King's views, 
 
 " I am your very affectionate friend, 
 
 " William." 
 
 * Francis Hastings, Eavl of Huntingdon, Gr6om of the Stole. 
 + George Fermor, second Earl of Pornfret, a Lord of the Bed- 
 chamber, Ranger of the Little Park at Windsor. 
 
 I Basil Fielding, sixth Earl of Denbigh, ]\Iaster of the Harriers. 
 
 § George Henry Lee, Earl of Lichfield, a Lord of tlie Bedchamber. 
 
 II Mr., afterwards Sir Gilbert, Elliot, Treasurer of the Chambers, 
 " a chief confidant of the favourite." 
 
 II James Oswald of Brumikier, joint Vice- Treasurer of Ireland. 
 All the persons here ruuned were either Tories or " King's friends."
 
 17G5.] LETTER TO LORD IIARDWICKE. 215 
 
 The unpleasant position of the King from so many 
 abortive attempts to form an administration, particu- 
 larly the last, which had failed through the refusal of 
 Lord Temple, is thus adverted to in a letter from 
 
 MR. CAMBKIDGE* TO THE EARL OF HARDWICKE. 
 
 " June 29th, 1765. 
 " Templa quam dilecta." f 
 
 " If your curiosity leads you to question me in that 
 way, I answer, that all the Politicos leave me to my 
 
 * Richai'd Owen Cambridge, author of the " Scribbleriad," and 
 several minor poems, also a contributor to the " World." Although 
 his works are now almost forgotten, he was one of the most popular 
 writers of his day. 
 
 He was an agreeable companion, and possessed a most extensive 
 acquaintance amongst men of all ranks, parties, and professions. He 
 lived almost entirely at his villa at Twickenham, in a house still 
 occupied by his family. Cambridge was a great toxophilite, the head 
 of a duck swimming in the Thames was a favourite mark which 
 he seldom missed. One singularity he had, which has ceased to be 
 one now, he was a " teetotaller." His friend. Lord Chesterfield, thus 
 describes him : — " Cantabrigius drinks nothing but water, and rides 
 more miles in a year than the keenest sportsman ; the former keeps 
 his head clear, the latter his body in health : it is not from himself 
 that he runs, but to his acquaintance, a synonj^nous term for his 
 friends. Internally safe, he seeks no sanctuary from himself. No 
 intoxication for his mind. His penetration makes him discover and 
 divert himself with the follies of mankind, which his wit makes him 
 to expose with the truest ridicule, but always without personal 
 offence. Cheerful abroad, because happy at home, and thus happy 
 because virtuous." — (A paper written to expose the folly and ill 
 effects of hard drinking). 
 
 t The family motto of Earl Temple, a punning paraphrase of a 
 verse of the 84th Psalm.
 
 216 MR. CAMBRIDGE [1765. 
 
 own conjectures. The late interludes have ended like 
 the tragedy of Tom Thumb, for all the dramatis 'personce 
 are dead ; and if Dr. Young was alive, he might truly 
 begin a new piece : — 
 
 " ' Like Death a solitary king I reign.' 
 
 " One authentic piece of news I will tell you, and 
 you may make the most of it. With my own eyes I 
 have just seen the Duke of Cumberland cross the ferry 
 to Richmond, otherwise I should begin my drama, 
 ' Enter a King and Mr. Brown * solus.^ There are 
 who report that they have seen a ministry in manu- 
 script at Windsor, but I do not hear that it is yet 
 ordered to be printed at Strawberry Hill,t — not 
 
 * Lancelot Brown, the famous landscape gardener, called from the 
 constant use of the words, '< This spot has great capabilities," " Capa- 
 bility Brown." The grounds of Richmond, Luton, Stowe, Nuneham, 
 and VVimbleton bespeak the high cultivation of his taste. To some 
 places, however, he would not allow any "capabilities." When 
 desired by the King to improve the grounds at Hampton Court, he 
 declined the hopeless task, " out of respect to himself and his profes- 
 sion." To a nobleman whose territory was very dreary. Brown said, 
 " My lord, there is nothing to be done here, unless you plant one- 
 half of your estate, and lay the other half under water." After lay- 
 ing out the fine piece of water at Blenheim, Brown is said to have 
 exclaimed, '' Thames ! thou wilt never forgive me." The King was 
 living at this time in such complete seclusion, that Cambridge's idea 
 of " a King and Mr. Brown solus" was very natural. By the 
 Chatham Correspondence, it appears that his Majesty occasionally 
 employed Mr. Brown on political errands. Mason says, that when 
 Brown's death reached the royal ear, his Majesty went over to Rich- 
 mond Gardens, and, in a tone of great satisfaction, said to the under 
 gardener, " Brown is dead. Now, Mellicant, you and I can do what 
 we please." 
 
 t Horace Walpole's printing press at Strawberry Hill.
 
 1705.] TO LORD IIARDWICKE. * 217 
 
 un-apropos, as Conway is there to correct the press. 
 Errata : — For ' Ellis' read ' Conway,' for ' Stanley ' read 
 ' Ellis; for ' Clive' read ' Young.^ 
 
 " G. Selwyn wants to make wit out of gold and 
 pewter, but does not bring them together, nor yet in 
 opposition, with any tolerable success. I wish it had 
 been witty, for your sake, for I send you nothing but a 
 melancholy account of our miscarriages in wit and poli- 
 tics, and conclude very seriously, in praying for some 
 happy end to the' present very unhappy state of a great 
 nation, and its greater dependencies, being at present 
 without government. We laughed at the perplexity the 
 foreigners were in the other day; I am afraid now we 
 may be ashamed to think they see too plainly the con- 
 temptible figure we make."
 
 218 * MEETING OF WHIG LEADERS. [17G5. 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 MEETING OP WHIG LEADERS, CHAKACTEBS OF BUKE OF GRAFTON, 
 
 GEN. CONWAY, DOWDESWELL, LORD JOHN CAVENDISH, THOMAS TOWNS- 
 IIEND, AND SIR G. SAVILE. — ROCKINGHAM ADMINISTRATION. — CHA- 
 RACTER OF, AND OVERTURES TO, LORD SHELBURNE. LORD DART- 
 MOUTH. — LORD Holland's overtures. — death of duke of Cum- 
 berland. — the "general WARRANT." — THE KING's AVERSION TO 
 THE ROCKINGHAM ADMINISTRATION. — THE STAMP ACT. — OPENING OF 
 PARLIAMENT. — THE KING's CORRESPONDENCE ON PARLIAMENTARY 
 
 DEBATES. PROPOSED CHANGE OF MINISTRY. — OVERTURES TO PITT. 
 
 CHARACTERS OF LORDS TALBOT AND NORTHINGTON. RIGHT OF 
 
 TAXING THE COLONIES. CABINET RESOLUTIONS ON THE STAMP ACT. 
 
 — CORRESPONDENCE AND DEBATES ON ITS REPEAL. PAMPHLET ON 
 
 THE REPEAL. — CHARACTER OF JEREMIAH DYSON. — BILL FOR REPEAL 
 PASSED. 
 
 On the 30tli of June, a meeting of the Whig leaders 
 was held at the Duke of Newcastle's. The following 
 paper, drawn up by his Grace, makes us acquainted with 
 the result of their deliberations : — 
 
 " This day, the Lords and Gentlemen hereunder 
 mentioned, viz., 
 
 (( 
 
 1 . Duke of Portland, 
 
 2. Marquis of Rockingham, 
 
 3. Earl of Albemarle, 
 
 4. Earl of Ashbuniham, 
 
 5. Earl of Besborough,
 
 1706.] MEETLNG OF WHIG LEADERS. 219 
 
 (). Lord George "j 
 
 7. Lord Frederick > Cavendish, 
 
 8. Lord John * 
 
 9. Lord Viscount Villiers, 
 
 10. Lord Grantham, 
 
 11. General Conway, 
 
 12. Hon. Colonel Fitzroy, 
 
 13. Hon. T. Walpole, 
 
 14. Captain Walsingham, 
 
 15. Mr. George Onslow, 
 
 1 6. Mr. Charles Townshend of Horningham, 
 
 17. Mr. Charles Townshend, junior, 
 
 18. Duke of Newcastle, 
 
 were unanimously of opinion that they could not venture 
 to come into any new Administration, except it was 
 agreed that the thought of replacing Mr. Mackenzie 
 should be laid aside; and also, that some of the par- 
 ticular friends of the Earl of Bute should be removed, 
 as a proof to the world that the Earl of Bute should 
 not, either publicly or privately, directly or indirectly, 
 have any concern or influence in public affairs, or in 
 the management or disposition of public employments. 
 
 " It was then considered whether these conditions, 
 being previously agreed to (as his Majesty had been 
 pleased to signify his intention to have a new Adminis- 
 tration) any of the persons here would, upon the con- 
 ditions above mentioned, advise and assist the forming 
 a new administration. Upon which there was a diffe- 
 rence of opinion. 
 
 " 1. Duke of Portland, 
 
 2. Marquis of Rockingham, 
 
 3. Earl of Albemarle, 
 
 4. Earl of Besborough,
 
 220 CHARACTER OF UUKE OF GRAFTON. [l7G5. 
 
 5. Lord George Cavendish, 
 
 6. Lord Frederick Cavendish, 
 
 7. Lord John Cavendish, 
 
 8. Lord Grantham, 
 
 9. General Conway, 
 
 10. Colonel Fitzroy, 
 
 11. Captain Walsingham, 
 
 12. Duke of Newcastle, 
 
 declared strongly of opinion that they should advise and 
 assist the forming a new administration, to be composed 
 of proper persons, upon the conditions above-mentioned. 
 
 " 1 . Earl of Ashburnham, 
 
 2. Lord Viscount Villiers, 
 
 3. Mr. George Onslow, 
 
 4. Mr. T. Walpole, 
 
 5. Mr. Charles Townshend of Horningham, 
 
 6. Mr. Charles Townshend, junior, 
 
 were of opinion that, in the present circumstances, no 
 new administration should be undertaken." 
 
 In accordance with the opinion of the majority of 
 this meeting, a new Ministry was formed, at the head 
 of which was the Marquis of Rockingham. 
 
 Augustus Henry Fitzroy, third Duke of Grafton, 
 obtained the seal of Secretary of State for the Southern 
 Department. He was at this time in his thirty-second 
 year, and possessed considerable graces, both of mind 
 and person. But these advantages were marred by an 
 infirmity of purpose or principle, which coloured, if it 
 did not justify, the assaults of Junius. We are not 
 bound to believe, on the assertion of that terrible
 
 1765.] CHARACTER OF DUKE OF GRAFTON. 221 
 
 shadow,* that " the Duke of Grafton's heart was the 
 blackest in the kingdom." But we can hardly avoid 
 the conclusion, with his whole career before us, that 
 the period of his ministerial life, during which he held 
 office under a Tory Government, was calamitous for his 
 country and disreputable to himself. He abandoned 
 the principles in which he had. been reared, and the 
 pal;ron by whom he had been initiated into statesman- 
 ship. He quitted Chatham for Bute, and the doctrines 
 of the Whigs for those of the " King's Friends ; " nor 
 was his inconstancy more venial, because he occasionally 
 allied himself with the Bedford party, and Avith the other 
 political connections, at the suggestions of a selfish 
 prudence, or a yet more selfish ambition. The incon- 
 gruity of the Duke of Grafton's conduct was the more 
 striking, because the commencement and the close of 
 his political life were both of them in strict accordance 
 with the principles of the Constitution, Could his 
 intermediate career be blotted out from the annals of 
 his country, he would have transmitted a respectable, 
 if not a distinguished, name to posterity. But his 
 memory must ever be exposed to the censure which 
 history pronounces upon those who sanction measures 
 which they cannot approve; and who, by the distrust 
 they thereby inspire, weaken the bonds of the more 
 consistent sections of parties. 
 
 " The Duke of Grafton," writes an anonymous con- 
 temporary, " is one of the most persuasive, or rather 
 pathetic, speakers in the House. His speeches are 
 * " Noininis umbra," the motto to the Letters of Junius.
 
 222 CHARACTER OF DUKE OF GRAFTON. [1765. 
 
 delivered in the style of a gentleman and a scholar. 
 His language is chosen, chaste, and correct. His judg- 
 ment in arranging his matter is not equalled by either 
 side of the House." Walpole has made the following 
 contrast between this Duke and the one who succeeded 
 him in his office : — " Richmond and Grafton were much 
 of an age; each regarded himself as a prince of the 
 blood; and emulation soon created a sort of rivalship 
 between them. The Duke of Richmond's figure was 
 noble and his person singularly handsome. The Duke 
 of Grafton was low, but manly, with much grace in his 
 address. The passions of both were strong, but of the 
 first, ardent; of the latter, slow and inflexible. The 
 Duke of Grafton had a grace and dignity in his utter- 
 ance, that commanded attention in lieu of matter; and 
 his temper being shy and reserved, he was supposed to 
 be endued with more steadiness than his subsequent 
 conduct displayed." 
 
 George Bloomfield, the elder brother of Robert, the 
 " Farmer's Boy," thought that, in the books published 
 by his brother, " the great and truly good man, the 
 late Duke of Grafton, ought to have been more 
 particularly mentioned. Surely," continues George 
 Bloomfield, " after near thirty years, the good sense 
 and benevolence of that real nobleman may be men- 
 tioned. When in my boyhood he held the highest 
 ofiice in the state that a subject can fill, and, like all 
 that attain such pre-eminence, had his enemies; yet 
 the more Junius and others railed at him, the more 
 I revered him. He was our ' Lord of the Manor,' and
 
 1766.] CHARACTER OF DUKE OF GRAFTON. 223 
 
 as I knew well his private character, I have no doubt 
 that he was ' all of a piece.' I have on foot joined the 
 fox-chace, and followed the Duke many an hour, and 
 witnessed his endearing condescension to all who could 
 run and shout." 
 
 There was, however, a portion of society not of an 
 age and size to participate in the Duke of Grafton's 
 favourite amusement, and these were not so honoured 
 as George Bloomfield; and it is to that portion I then 
 belonged. His Grace was not fond of children; they 
 came in for no share of his " endearing condescension." 
 I have a lively recollection of the awe with which he 
 inspired me. As the Duke's and my father's country 
 houses in Suffolk were only four miles distant, and the 
 families were on intimate terms, I had frequent oppor- 
 tunities of seeing him during the first twelve years of 
 my life. On some occasions I saw him in the luncheon 
 room at Euston Hall, but this was a rare occurrence, for 
 I was generally hurried out of the room whenever he 
 was expected. I used mostly to meet him riding. He 
 was usually mounted on a fiery thorough-bred horse, on 
 which he sat with much ease and dignity. I know not 
 how far local traditions may have mixed with personal 
 recollections, but the "mind's eye" presents the picture 
 of an elderly gentleman, of spare form, middle stature, 
 straight silver hair, a prominent nose, and a countenance 
 of much severity ; and dressed in a light-coloured tight- 
 fitting coat, long black boots, and a small three-cornered 
 hat. But it was not to us little people only that the 
 " Junius Duke of Grafton" was formidable. From the
 
 224 CHARACTER OF GENERAL CONWAY. [l706. 
 
 accounts I have heard his nephew, the late General 
 William Fitzroy, give of him, he was evidently an object 
 of terror to 
 
 " Children of a larger growth." 
 
 The leadership in the House of Commons was assigned 
 to Lieut.-General Henry Seymour Conway, who had 
 served with distinction at Culloden, Fontenoy, and Laf- 
 feldt, and in 1761 had commanded the British division 
 under Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick. Conway was a 
 better soldier than he was an officer, and more of an 
 officer than a statesman. His features were singularly 
 handsome, and he was dignified in his person and de- 
 meanour. Although his disposition was courteous, his 
 constitutional timidity made him reserved, and he had 
 the semblance of pride without the advantage of firm- 
 ness. In the field he would march with imperturbable 
 coolness up to the carihoVs mouth.* On the Treasury 
 Bench he faltered and wavered; and although by no 
 means deficient in eloquence, irresolution rendered his 
 speeches tedious and obscure. This infirmity of purpose 
 often laid him open to the sneers of his contemporaries. 
 It was said of him that if two doors opened to one 
 apartment, Conway would be tortured to decide through 
 wliich of them he should finally pass. He thus became 
 exposed to the influence of any one Avho would advise 
 him. Lord Rockingham urged upon him the claims of 
 
 * " I don't pretend," said George Stanhope, a brother of lord 
 Chesterfield's, " to be like Harry Conway, who walks up to the mouth 
 of a cannon with as much coolness and grace as if he was going to 
 dance a minuet." — Walpole.
 
 17(!5.] CHARACTER OF DOWDESWELL. 225 
 
 political virtue and independence, but into the other 
 ear Horace Walpole whispered the duty of self-interest ; 
 and Conway too generally preferred the worse to the 
 better reason.* / . 
 
 The virtues of William Dowdeswell, the Chancellor o^ 0hj^i'<^''''' 
 the Exchequer in the new Administration, have been 
 recorded in the epitaph which Burke has inscribed upon 
 his tomb — "An epitaph so perfectly true," says its 
 author, " that every word of it may be deposed upon 
 oath." Dowdeswell was fortunate in his chronicler, 
 but still more fortunate in having authenticated by 
 his life the portrait which friendship, both political 
 and personal, has drawn of him in the following 
 words : — 
 ;;?^" His understanding was comprehensive, steady, vigor- • 
 ous, made for the practical business of the State. In ( 
 debate he was clear, natural, and convincing. His f 
 knowledge on all things which concerned his duty pro- 
 found : he understood, beyond any man of his time, the 
 revenue of his country, which he preferred to every 
 thing except its liberties ; he was perfect master of the ' . 
 
 law of Parliament, and attached to its privileges, until ^' ; / / 
 they were set up against the rights of the people." -^r" ' (SfiT/^ 
 
 Lord John Cavendish, a younger son of the third / JLJ^r'^ 
 Duke of Devonshire, was one of the new Lords of the " 
 Treasury. His tutor at Cambridge was Mason the poet, 
 
 * Since the above remarks on Conway were in type, my friend Sir 
 Denis Le Marchant has sent me some of the Field-Marshal's early 
 letters to Walpole ; which, as they are both characteristic and 
 amusing, I have placed in the Appendix to this volume. 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 226 CHARACTER OF LORD JOHN CAVENDISH. [1765. 
 
 who on his leaving the University addressed to him the 
 beautiful lines beginning — 
 
 " Ere yet, ingenuous youth, thy steps retire." 
 
 Like Dowdeswell's, Lord John's character was irre- 
 proachable ; his conduct was uniformly marked by gene- 
 rosity, sincerity, openness, and integrity. His manners, 
 like Dowdeswell's, were thoroughly simple and unassum- 
 ing. Throughout life he was the warm friend of Lord 
 Eockingham, under whose second Administration he 
 filled the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer. Wal- 
 pole, whom Lord John used to thwart in his schemes to 
 Tender the Whig party subservient to his friend Con- 
 way's interests, has given the following sarcastic sketch 
 
 of him : — 
 
 " He had read a good deal, and his eyes saw not 
 faster than his memory retained. He was accurate in 
 repeating words, sentences, nay, volumes if he pleased : 
 nor was he defective in quickness or reasoning. Under 
 the appearance of virgin modesty, he had a confidence 
 in himself that nothing could equal, and a thirst of 
 dominion still more extraordinary. It consisted solely 
 in governing those with whom he was connected without 
 views either of interest or power. His plan seemed to 
 be the tyranny of a moral philosopher ; he was a kind of 
 heresiarch that sought to be adored by his enthusiastic 
 disciples without a view of extending his sect beyond 
 that circle. His fair little person, and the quaintness 
 with which he untreasured as by rote the stores of his 
 memory, occasioned George Selwyn to call him the 
 learned Canary-bird .''
 
 7^^ 
 
 1765.] CHARACTER OF THOMAS TOWNSHEND. 227 
 
 One of Lord John s colleagues at the Treasury Board ')J 
 was Thomas Townshend, a grandson of the second •/t/^-'i 
 Viscount Townshend. His name must be familiar to ^fj)^^"^^ 
 every one, from Goldsmith's lines, wherein he represents 
 Burke — 
 
 " Though fraught with all learning, yet straining his throat. 
 To persuade Tommy Townshend to lend him a vote." 
 
 " He always," says Wraxall, " spoke with facility — 
 sometimes with energy — and was never embarrassed by 
 any degree of timidity." When Lord Rockingham re- 
 turned to power in 1782, Townshend was appointed one 
 of the Secretaries of State. He continued to act with 
 the Whigs until the coalition, when he ranged himself 
 under the banners of the younger Pitt, at whose nomina- 
 tion he was successively created Baron and Viscount 
 Sydney. Eeplacing Lord Fitzwilliam in the chair of 
 the newly formed India Board, he is thus noticed in the 
 " Eolliad "_ 
 
 " Sydney, whom all the powers of rhetoric grace, 
 Consistent Sydney fills Fitzwilliam's place. 
 had, by Nature, but proportioned been 
 His strength of genius to his length of chin. 
 His mighty mind, in some prodigious plan, 
 At once, with ease, had reached to Hindustan." 
 
 The Premier's friend, Sir George Savile, was invited 
 to take part in th^ Eockingham Administration. But 
 with his habitual delicacy and candour he declined the 
 offer, alleging that, as an independent Member of Par- 
 liament, he could better assert his privileges and serve 
 his friends. Faction has spared the name of Savile: 
 
 Q2 

 
 228 CHARACTER OF [l7G5. 
 
 contemporaries are unanimous in representing hira 
 as~iii the highest degree generous, benevolent, disinte- 
 rested, and unostentatious — a high commendation in an 
 age where mere negative virtues were rare, and states- 
 men imitated the maxims rather than the practice of Sir 
 Robert Walpole. In person Savile was somewhat above 
 the middle size ; his figure was slender, his complexion 
 adust, his constitution delicate ; his address was easy, and 
 almost bordering upon negligence. As an orator he pos- 
 sessed great facility of utterance, and was simple even 
 to austerity in the choice of his words. In debate he 
 was clear, sensible, and persuasive. A peculiar radiance 
 spread over his features whenever philanthropy was the 
 theme of his discourse. Indeed, the general belief in 
 the honesty and benevolence of his intentions pro- 
 duced such an impression in favour of his arguments, 
 that " Truth came mended from his tongue." His 
 habits of thinking were very original. " He had a head," 
 Walpole remarks, " as acutely argumentative as if it 
 had been made by a German logician for a model." He 
 was a shrewd observer of contemporary statesmen. He 
 predicted early the future greatness of Charles Fox. 
 When that statesman was scarcely a man, he praised him 
 for his readiness in finding out blots — his celerity in 
 hitting the bird's-eye of an argument, and his general 
 talents for opposition. " Hence," said Savile, " others 
 A may have more stock, but Fox has more ready money 
 
 about him than any of his party." 
 
 Toleration in matters of religion is a doctrine of 
 comparatively recent growth. It was imperfectly un-
 
 J'^fV"' 
 
 rs 
 
 M 9^ 
 
 1765.] SIR GEORGE SAVILE. 229 
 
 derstood by the Whigs of the hist century, who com- 
 bined the ideas of Protestantism and the Hanoverian 
 succession. It was utterly unknown to their political 
 opponents, who recognized the Church of England as 
 the sole Church of Christ ; but Savile was an honour- 
 able exception to both these extremes. He advocated 
 the claims of the Roman Catholics, and his advocacy 
 ex^oosed him to the fury of the Church and King mobs 
 of the year '80; and yet, even while his house was 
 assailed, and frequent attempts were made to set it on 
 fire, he spoke of the incendiaries with compassion, and 
 ascribed the zeal of the multitude rather to their 
 ignorance than to their evil passions, rather to their 
 being led by blind guides than to the spontaneous aber- 
 ration of their own feelings. 
 
 Savile's conduct on this occasion was highly charac- 
 teristic. Several of his friends agreed to sit up with 
 him during the night for the protection of his family. 
 It was arranged amongst them that parties from time to 
 time should sally forth in search of intelligence re- 
 specting the riots, but, as their accounts varied from 
 each other, Savile said, with great composure, "Here, 
 gentlemen, is a fine lesson for an historian. We have a 
 fact of the day before "us, reported by men of integrity 
 and ability, anxious to search for truth, and willing to 
 record it with as much circumstance and minuteness 
 as possible. Yet, such is the nature of the human 
 mind, that with all its inclinations to do right, it is 
 under that operation which in some degree pre- 
 vents it." 
 
 /
 
 230 ROCKINGHAM ADMINISTRATION. [l765. 
 
 Such was this wise and virtuous citizen, who indeed 
 exhibited in his character many of the qualities which 
 the Roman satirist ascribes to the senator Crispus : — 
 
 " Cujus erant mores, qualis facundia, mite 
 Ingenium : maria ac terras populosque regenti 
 Quis comes utilior 1 " * 
 
 In forming his ministry, Lord Rockingham was natu- 
 rally anxious to secure the co-operation, or at least the 
 neutrality, of Mr. Pitt. With this view he appointed 
 his friends the Duke of Grafton and General Conway 
 Secretaries of State; his brother-in-law, James Gren- 
 ville, Vice- Treasurer of Ireland, and raised Chief- Justice 
 Pratt to the Peerage, with the title of Baron Camden. 
 But the advancement of friends, relations, or recent 
 colleagues did not conciliate the impracticable Minister. 
 . He not only would not assist the Government, but by 
 the disparaging tone that he adopted, he discouraged 
 many of his followers from joining them. Thus, for 
 example, when Sir Fletcher Norton was dismissed by 
 Lord Rockingham from the Attorney-Generalship, be- 
 cause he was a bitter and uncompromising foe, Pitt sent 
 word to Sir Fletcher, that " he was not turned out by 
 his advice, and that, were he Minister, he should be 
 glad of the assistance of such abilities." 
 
 The failure of Lord Rockingham to win over Lord 
 Chatham and his adherents is the more to be lamented, 
 because, had the co-operation been effected, much of the 
 misrule and misunderstanding which at this period 
 
 * Juv. Sat. iv. 82.
 
 17G5.] CHARACTER OF LORD SIIELBURNE. 231 
 
 sullies English annals, might probably have bee n 
 avoided. 
 
 Among those whom Pitt's example and demeanour if pi 
 deterred was John Fitzmaurice, Earl of Shelburne. lie f^At^^^^ 
 
 was now in the twenty-ninth year of his age. The 
 army was at that period the general school of men of 
 high birth ; and, as Viscount Fitzmaurice, he had greatly 
 distinguished himself in the battles of Camper and 
 Minden. At the commencement of the new reign he 
 had been appointed one of the royal aides-de-camp, and 
 in 1762 he represented High Wycombe in Parliament. 
 In the year following he succeeded to the Earldom of 
 Shelburne and a seat in the House of Lords. In 1763 
 he was for a few months President of the Board of 
 Trade, but resigned that post on Mr. Pitt's failure to 
 form an Administration. For public life, Lord Shel- 
 burne possessed m any e minent qualifications. His coun- 
 tenance was handsome and expressive; his demeanour 
 dignified; his insight into character was shrewd and 
 generally accurate. His wit was general, and his 
 eloquence graceful and persuasive. His knowledge of 
 business, especially that which related to foreign aflairs, 
 was extensive; and at times he was capable of steady 
 application to official duties. Perhaps, however. Lord 
 Shelburne was better adapted to second a political 
 leader, than himself to conduct a leading department in 
 the Cabinet. There were, indeed, grave errors in his 
 political career. In the first place, he was carried j| 
 away by what we must consider an undue admiration of '< \ 
 Lord Chatham. " Regis ad exemplar," he was often • »
 
 232 CHARACTER OF [l765. 
 
 sullen and impracticable in intercourse with his proper 
 political allies. At an earlier period, indeed, he had 
 been a staunch opponent of the "Great Commoner;" 
 and he prompted the celebrated attack upon him by- 
 Colonel Barre, of which mention has already been made 
 in these pages. But Lord Shelburne seems to have 
 thought with Mrs. Malaprop, that in unions it was " as 
 well to begin with a little aversion." But his opposition 
 became warm partisanship, and he even acted in concert 
 with one who was nearly as formidable to friends as 
 I to foes, and on Lord Chatham's decease he became the 
 
 i leader of that section of Whigs which thenceforward 
 was denominated " the Shelburne party." 
 
 Lord Shelburne's standing aloof from the Kockingham 
 Ministry in 1765, and from Charles Fox's Cabinet in 
 1783, were favourable neither to his own reputation 
 nor to the interests of the country at large. Himself 
 it placed in the false position of heading and perpetu- 
 ating a schism, which had no just or even plausible 
 ground to rest upon. The Whig party it enfeebled, 
 while it enabled the Court to carry on its machi- 
 nations against constitutional principles and the liber- 
 ties of the people. The " King's friends " indeed, when 
 they contemplated the severance of their opponents, 
 might be excused if they applauded their own suc- 
 cess dividing and crippling adversaries who, if united 
 among themselves, would have presented an impene- 
 trable phalanx against both the sovereign and his 
 favourites.
 
 1765.] LORD SHELBURNE. 233 
 
 Division among the Whigs was, at this juncture, the 
 one thing needful for the Court. 
 
 T hese errors were tlic more regretted, because, in 
 many respects, he was an enlightened and consistent 
 statesman. In the affair of Wilkes, and in the case 
 of the printers, he took the side of reason and liberty. 
 He condemned the equally foolisli and wicked measures 
 in their dealings with the American Colonies; he uni- 
 formly resisted the encroachments of the Crown, while 
 he advocated inquiry into the public expenditure, and 
 the abolition of sinecure and superfluous places. On / 
 the appointment of the younger Pitt, in 1783, as First 
 Lord of the Treasury, Lord Shelburne, who had then \ 
 become Marquis of Lansdowne, retired into private life. ' 
 The French Revolution once again recalled him to a 
 public career, and he strenuously co-operated with the 
 party which would have avoided the equally unjust 
 and unfortunate interference with France — Diis aliter 
 visum — but a strong union of the Whigs in 1793 would 
 have saved ourselves~and our neighbours from many 
 crimes and much repentance. 
 
 In his retirement at Bowood, Lord Shelburne became 
 the host of the eccentric and philanthropic Jeremy ^ 
 Bentham. Lord Mansfield has spoken with encomium s 
 of the " Fragment on Government," but he took no 
 notice of its author. Lord Shelburne, although he had 
 introduced Blackstone to the King, both commended 
 the "Fragment" and afforded a temporary home and 
 much hearty encouragement to poor Bentham — at that
 
 234 LETTER TO LORD SHELBURNE. [l765. 
 
 time smarting under poverty, and suffering from all 
 kinds of despondency. 
 
 Bentliam describes himself as coming to Bowood, 
 
 "cowed by past humiliations; feeling like an outcast 
 
 i in the world." " Lord Shelburne," he adds, " raised 
 
 f me from the bottomless pit of humiliation, and made 
 
 i me feel I was something." 
 
 It comes not within the scope of this work to de- 
 scribe this intimacy further. So far as Lord Shelburne 
 is concerned, however, his intercourse with the codify- 
 ing philosopher was honourable to his heart and his 
 understanding. 
 
 THE MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHAM TO THE EARL OF 
 
 SHELBURNE. 
 
 "My Lord, "July ii,i 765. 
 
 " I did myself the honour to wait upon your Lord- 
 ship on last, but had not the good 
 fortune to find you at home ; and I should have desired 
 the honour of a conversation with you, if I had had 
 any expectation of succeeding with you in what I was 
 empowered to propose. 
 
 " I must, nevertheless, in order not to appear want- 
 ing in respect to your Lordship, desire to know from 
 your Lordship, whether it would be agreeable to you to 
 return to preside at the Board of Trade. 
 
 " Tlie conversation I have had with Mr. Dempster 
 has given me the utmost satisfaction, as it permits me 
 to flatter myself, that your Lordship is not disinclined
 
 1765.] LETTER TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. 235 
 
 to give your countenance and assistance in support of 
 his Majesty's present servants; as well as that your 
 Lordship is far from objecting to any applications being 
 made to Col. Barre.""" 
 
 THE EARL OF SHELBURNE TO THE MARQUIS OF 
 ROCKINGHAM. 
 
 "My Lord, "July ii, 1765. 
 
 " It is impossible for me, except I could convey to 
 your Lordship, at the same time, how desirous I have 
 ever been, by unalterable duty and respect, to preserve 
 his Majesty's good opinion, to express to you the satisfac- 
 tion and happiness it would give me to serve him in 
 any situation, much more in the considerable one your 
 Lordship does me the honour to point out to me. I' 
 am, therefore, extremely concerned, that besides the 
 total ignorance I am under in regard to the measures 
 you propose to pursue, a real consciouness of my own 
 inability in so active an office, to which the domestic 
 habits I have lately fallen into add not a little, makes 
 it absolutely incumbent on me to decline the honour 
 done me, through a conviction that more evil might 
 come to his Majesty's affairs, than the little aid I could 
 ever hope to give, could compensate. 
 
 " As to my future conduct, your Lordship Avill pardon r){y\ 
 2 if I say, ' J\reasures and not men ' will be the rule /h , |J 
 
 me 
 
 ot it; especuilly as I can add, that besides the sincere ^ ^ 
 
 terest 
 
 * Colonel Barrc sat in Parliament, through Lord Shelburne's in- j] 
 est, for the Borough of Calne. '
 
 236 OVERTURES TO SHELBURNE. [l765. 
 
 I affection I shall ever bear his Majesty's person, my 
 
 \ opinion of the present state of this country, in many 
 
 respects, is such as will make it matter of very serious 
 
 concern to me, not to concur in whatever shall be 
 
 proposed by his Majesty's Ministers. 
 
 " This, as I recollect, contains the substance of my 
 conversation to Mr. Dempster, when he did me the 
 favour to call on me some time ago, and in the course 
 of his visit took occasion to speak to me of myself 
 
 " I am sorry it is impossible for me to give your 
 Lordship any light in regard to Colonel Barr6. So 
 many public events have happened since he has been 
 at a distance, that I cannot even conjecture what his 
 sentiments may be in the present situation. Your 
 Lordship may be assured, if he approves the public 
 plan of government proposed, I shall hear with the 
 greatest pleasure of his obeying the King's commands, 
 and yielding to your Lordship's wishes. 
 
 "I have the honour to be, with great consideration 
 and regard, 
 
 " My Lord, 
 " Your most obedient and most humble servant, 
 
 " Shelburne." 
 
 These overtures to Lord Shelburne were renewed in 
 the month of December of this year; and Mr. Pitt, in 
 answer to his Lordship's announcement, certainly gave 
 him no encouragement to alter his determination. 
 
 " The openings," writes Mr. Pitt, " from Lord Kock- 
 ingham to your Lordship and Colonel Barre, you will
 
 nC5.J EARL OF DARTMOUTH. 237 
 
 easily believe do not surprize me; notliing being so 
 natural as for Ministers, under the double pressure of 
 affairs all in confusion, and doubtful internal situation, 
 to recur to distinguished abilities for assistance."* 
 
 On the failure of Lord Rockingham's negociation 
 with Lord Shelburne, the Chairmanship of the Board 
 of Trade was bestowed on William Legge, second Earl 
 of Dartmou th. He went outlvTtTrilielVTiTgs 'in'r766, 
 but in 1772 was appointed Secretary of State for the 
 Colonies, and in 1775 became Keeper of the Privy 
 Seal. He resigned his situation when Lord Rocking- 
 ham became a second time Minister; and, in April, 
 1783, he was appointed Lord Steward of the Household, 
 but resigned with his friends, and continued ever after 
 in private life. Lord Dartmouth was always remark- 
 able for his strict attention to his religious duties. 
 Hervey, the author of " Meditations," ranks him among 
 his friends. He bore an excellent character in all the 
 domestic relations of life. 
 
 The Grenville Ministry had annexed, among other 
 conditions to their continuance in office, the exclusion 
 of their late friend and ally. Lord Holland, from the 
 Pay Office. This point was, perEaps, the only one 
 which had been yielded without a murmur. Lord 
 Holland had not been forgiven by the Princess Dowager 
 for advising Mr. Pelham, on the death of her husband, 
 to take her son (afterwards the King) from her, that 
 she might not get an ascendant over him. Abandoned 
 by the Court, Lord Holland tried to be reconciled to 
 * Chatham Correspondence, ii. 359.
 
 238 LORD HOLLAND [l765. 
 
 the friends whom he had deserted, particularly to the 
 Duke of Cumberland. Eight days after the new 
 Administration w^as formed, he addressed Lord Albe- 
 marle, whose cousin. Lady Caroline Lennox, he had 
 married, in the following terms : — 
 
 " I NEVER wrote with so much anxiety as I write this 
 letter, and you can't wonder at it, since on it depends 
 the only view I have, or ever shall have, of content 
 and pleasure the remainder of my days. 
 
 " Whilst the new administration was forming, I 
 thought my writing might be construed as an attempt 
 to have a hand in forming it, which no man in England 
 desired I should, and I as little as any. But it is now 
 made, and, unless it does as the Duke of Bolton did, 
 will live" long, or I am mistaken. Lord Bute must be 
 content with the revenge he has had of his Calcraft; 
 the King, with having got rid of G. Grenville, &c., and 
 being treated for the future with good breeding ; whilst 
 his Eoyal Highness will meddle with public affairs 
 only from the highest (his proper) sphere, unmolested 
 with the little intrigues or under-plots of court politi- 
 cians. I wish that I might again kiss his hand at 
 Windsor, as I used to do; I say, though it is a bold 
 word, as I wish to do, because 1 can, with the strictest 
 truth, affirm solemnly, that my affection was never 
 alienated one moment from his Eoyal Highness, my 
 gratitude never lessened. His Majesty (with whom his 
 Royal Highness has had lately much discourse, I hear) 
 could, if he pleased, give ample testimony of this. But,
 
 17G5.] TO LORD ALBEMARLE. 239 
 
 it may be said, why should the Duke forgive and see me? 
 Not, certainly, with hope of my being of any use what- 
 ever, more than if I was dead and buried. But, my 
 dear Lord, he will see a devoted servant so obliged, that 
 in his whole life he cannot make another man, with 
 so much reason, or so much, or so affectionately, his, 
 as I am. 
 
 "If he would forget everything but how he has 
 obliged me, I could, and do think of nothing but how 
 much I have been obliged ; and, my dear Lord, you 'd 
 act like what you have always been, a generous and 
 sincere friend, if you give me your best assistance on 
 this occasion. 
 
 "Whatever lies you may have heard, and I doubt 
 not many have been told, indeed, my dear Lord Albe- 
 marle, I am not unworthy of your friendship for me 
 with the Duke. I presume to hope an answer soon. 
 When it does come, it 's the whole difference between 
 a cheerful and a discontented life to, 
 
 " My dear Lord, yours ever, 
 
 " Holland. 
 
 " Nobody knows, or will know, that I have had the 
 courage to write this letter." 
 
 . The bad success which attended Lord Holland's over- 
 tures, will be seen by the following letter from Lord 
 Rockingham to the Duke of Cumberland, and from his 
 Royal Highness's answer.
 
 240 LORD ROCKINGHAM [l705. 
 
 THE MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHAM TO THE DUKE OF 
 
 CUMBERLAND. 
 «' giR "October 20, 1765. 
 
 "It is necessary for me to begin by apprising your 
 Royal Highness of the origin of the affair which I now 
 lay before you, and sliall hope for your excuse if I am 
 rather prolix. 
 
 " Lord Holland, through various channels, for some 
 time has been labouring to persuade me to restore one 
 Mr. Earle, of Wiltshire, who was Receiver of the Land- 
 Tax, and who was turned out by G. Grenville, just 
 before he left the Treasury, in order to give the place 
 to a Mr. Wilkins, a friend and apothecary to Lord 
 Suffolk. Lord Suffolk is a competitor with Lord Hol- 
 land for the Borough of Malmsbury, in Wiltshire. 
 
 " I inquired some time ago, at the Treasury, into the 
 circumstances of Mr. Earle's dismission, and found that 
 Mr. Earle was rather behindhand with his remittances, 
 and indeed that many other receivers were so too; 
 but that he only was dismissed. I am quite persuaded 
 that Mr. Earle's dismission proceeded from no other 
 cause but the intention of Mr. Grenville to oblige and 
 assist Lord Suffolk and to offend Lord Holland. I have 
 again renewed an inquiry into what has been the 
 general custom at the Treasury, when receivers have 
 been dilatory in their remittances, and rather think 
 that the usual process is, first by suspension, and that 
 dismission only follows, if they do not quickly pay up 
 the deficiencies, and cannot give good security for their
 
 1765.] TO DUKE OF CUMBERLAND. 241 
 
 future better conduct. In general, the dismission of a 
 receiver is very unusual. The language I have held to 
 those (who have, as I imagine, been employed by Lord 
 Holland) has been, that I should not have the least 
 difficulty in my own mind to do justice to a friend of 
 Lord Holland, but that matter of favour was what I 
 thought could not be expected. That I had restored 
 many, who had been unjustly dismissed from low offices, 
 but that I had not dealt in retaliation of injuries, even 
 though pressed by friends to gratify their resentments. 
 
 " I was surprised on Thursday last at receiving a 
 letter from Lord Holland, but much more so this morn- 
 ing at being told by Ranhy^'^ as mere chit chat, that 
 Lord Holland had inquired of him, on what day and 
 at what hour my levee was, as ' he, Lord Holland, in^ 
 tended to coined I treated this hint as very improba- 
 ble, and then it was again renewed with a question: 
 ' Why, you would not surely shut your doors to Lord 
 Holland?^ I continued the same sort of rei)ly, by 
 treating it as improbable. 
 
 " Though I fear I tire your Royal Highness with this 
 long narration, I must still beg to state to your Royal 
 Highness my thoughts on this matter. If no hint is 
 conveyed through Ranby, I do imagine that probably 
 next Thursday Lord Holland will make his appearance 
 at my levee. 
 
 " This phenomenon Avill, of course, occasion much 
 speculation and much discourse, and, I think, will have 
 two effijcts ; the one is, that all parliamentary lookers- 
 
 * Surgeon-general to the King. 
 VOL. L R
 
 242 DUKE OF CUMBERLAND [l765. 
 
 out will immediately conceive that it is a great addition 
 of strength and support to the present administration, 
 and many a Avavering man will fix with us. 
 
 " The other effect is, that Lord Holland's appearance 
 will not tend to the general credit with the public, on 
 which this administration founded their reliance of 
 support. 
 
 " Your Royal Highness will not wonder that, seeing 
 the affair in the light I do, I should request your Royal 
 Highness for your directions. 
 
 " I scarce believe, howsoever anxious Lord Holland 
 may be on this point, relative to Mr. Earle, that his 
 visit in Grosvenor-square is merely confined to that 
 object. Perhaps not having succeeded in other at- 
 tempts he has made, he may think a public mark of 
 his intentions to support the present administration, 
 formed under your Royal Highness's protection, may 
 operate so far as to give him a chance of regaining, 
 in some small degree, that favour which he now so 
 much regrets. 
 
 " I sent to the Duke of Grafton this evening, and he 
 has been with me; and after having stated the two 
 points of view in which this aifair strikes me, his Grace 
 was as much perplexed to determine as I was. I must 
 say, Sir, that to hesitate is laudable, and that it is the 
 first time any administration ever hesitated, whether 
 the acceptance of a declaration of Lord Holland's in 
 their favour, was matter of doubt. I own it is to me 
 much matter of doubt, and I would not take upon rae to 
 detennine, on my own judgment alone, what may be of
 
 17G5.] TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. 243 
 
 SO much general importance; and especially as I may 
 think that it is the first step to a consequential intention. 
 " In all consideration, I submit it to your Royal 
 Highness's directions." 
 
 The next morning, the Duke of Cumberland thus 
 replied to Lord Eockingham : — 
 
 " My Lord Rockingham, "Newmarket, October 21st, 1765. 
 
 " I have this evening received yours, with the en- 
 closure from Lord Holland. 
 
 " I am highly sensible of your delicacy towards me, 
 in not deciding on the propriety of this measure with 
 the Duke of Grafton without my opinion on the subject; 
 but, as you both seem to want to know my thoughts, I 
 shall fully give them, having nothing more at heart than 
 the honour and success that ought to attend the prin- 
 ciples on which you undertook the administration. 
 
 " As little as the appearance of seeking Lord Holland 
 would do honour to the Administration, as much hurt 
 might come on the throwing of him into the enemy's 
 scale. It were to be wished, he would have contented 
 himself with letting his friends assist Government with- 
 out appearing himself; but as that will not do, and 
 that he will show himself personally at the Minister's, 
 it is much better it should be publicly, and at a levee, 
 than in any other -way, because the whole world will see 
 how far that goes, and is all on his side only. 
 
 " If the granting his request be just and proper, 
 grant it, and accept his visit as a return of thanks for 
 
 R 2
 
 244 DEATH OF DUKE OF CUMBERLAND. [1765. 
 
 justice done to his friend. Upon the whole, I do not 
 see how you can shut your door upon him ; and there- 
 fore, let the measure be his, and only acceptance on 
 your side. 
 
 " Excuse the hurry of this letter, and assure yourself 
 that I am as zealous of your honour as you yourselves 
 can be. 
 
 " I am, &c., 
 
 " William." 
 
 Ten days from the date of this letter, the writer had 
 ceased to breathe. His Royal Highness had long been 
 in a precarious state of health; he had grown enor- 
 mously fat, had completely lost the use of one eye, and 
 saw but imperfectly with the other. He was asthmatic, 
 had had a paralytic stroke, and the wound in the leg that 
 he had received at Dettingen never completely healed. 
 
 On the 30th of October, the Duke was playing at 
 piquet with General Hodgson; he grew confused and 
 mistook the cards. The next day he was sufficiently 
 recovered to appear at Court, and dined in the after- 
 noon with Lord Albemarle. A Cabinet Council was 
 held the same evening, at eight. Being then at his 
 house in Upper Grosvenor-street, just as the Duke of 
 Newcastle and Lord North ington came into the room, he 
 was seized with a suffocation. One of his valets, who was 
 accustomed to bleed him, was called, and prepared to tie 
 up his arm, but the Duke exclaimed, " It is all over," 
 and immediately expired in Lord Albemarle's arms. 
 
 The Duke dying intestate. Lord Albemarle, under the
 
 1765.] PRINCESS AMELIA. TO LORD ALBEMARLE. 245 
 
 King's sign manual, took out letters of administration 
 to his estate. With the exception of a few letters in 
 my possession, all the Duke's papers were burned, as 
 will be seen by the following letter from his Royal High- 
 ness's favourite sister: — 
 
 H. R. H. THE PRINCESS AMELIA TO THE EARL OF 
 
 ALBEMARLE. 
 
 " Gunnersbury, Nov. 2, 1765. 
 " You are always attentive and obliging, my good 
 Lord Albemarle. I thank you for the letters, and I 
 have burnt them. I need not tell you, I hope, how sen- 
 sibly I am pleased with the message the King hath sent 
 you.""'' It would be a great pleasure to our friend if 
 he could know it, and I think will do infinite honour to 
 the King. 
 
 " I am, and ever shall be, 
 " My good Lord Albemarle, your sincere friend, 
 
 " Amelia. 
 
 " The King hath done me the honour to write to me 
 a very gracious, affectionate, and feeling letter upon 
 my great loss." 
 
 At the Duke of Cumberland's request the King had 
 promised Lord Albemarle the first vacant garter, and 
 his Majesty now with much propriety bestowed upon 
 him that recently vacated by his deceased master. 
 
 * Through Lord Rockingham. The Kmg's letter is published in 
 my brother's Life of Lord Keppel, i. £f84.
 
 24G MR. CHARLES YORKE [l765. 
 
 Soon after Wilkes had been discliarged by the Court of 
 Common Pleas, actions were brought, at the suggestion 
 of Lord Temple, against Lords Halifax and Egremont, 
 against the under Secretary of State, the Solicitor of the 
 Treasury, and the King's messengers. Lord Chief Jus- 
 tice Pratt, before whom some of these actions were tried, 
 declared it as his opinion that the warrant was illegal, 
 that it was illegally executed, that the Secretaries of 
 State were not within the Acts of Parliament of James 
 the First and George the Second, and consequently that 
 the action would be against the messengers. 
 
 Accordingly the juries in all the cases of the parties 
 attached under the warrant, found verdicts in favour of 
 the plaintiffs, and awarded heavy damages. In the 
 action against Mr. Wood, the Under-Secretary, Wilkes 
 obtained damages to the amount of one thousand pounds. 
 
 HON. CHARLES YORKE TO THE MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHAM, 
 
 " Sunday morning, 9 o'clock, Nov. 3, 1 765. 
 
 " My dear Lord, 
 
 *' The state of the material actions depending in the 
 affair of the messengers is this. One was argued by the 
 Solicitor-General in the Court of King's Bench last Term. 
 Two others, in the Court of Common Pleas. That de- 
 pending in the King's Bench stands now to be argued 
 by me, as Attorney-General. Lord Mansfield and the 
 other Judges have determined on the general warranty 
 and laid it oUt of the case. So that the points remain- 
 ing are, Whether the Secretaries of State and their ser-
 
 1765.] TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. 247 
 
 vants are within the statute laws, which favour Justices 
 of Peace; and whether the messenger apprehending a 
 man who was not printer and publisher of ' North Bri- 
 ton,' No. 45, can justify under any warrant directing 
 him to take up those who were so. Now, I am clearly of 
 opinion that even supposing the Secretaries of State are 
 within the statutes, and supposing the warrant had been 
 proper, still the mistake cannot, in strictness, be justi- 
 fied by the officer. In short, my Lord, the true com- 
 plaint of all these verdicts is the excess of damages^ 
 which cannot be set right ; and from what has passed in 
 both Courts, I know that it is impossible to avoid the 
 payment of them .... As to the other actions in the 
 Common Pleas they turn mostly on the same points, 
 except that, in one of them, the indefensible clause in 
 that old warrant, directing the general seizure of a libel- 
 ler's papers^ comes to be considered. 
 
 " Upon the whole, the favour I must beg of your 
 Lordship is to inform his Majesty, with my humble 
 duty, that, in my opinion it is for his Majesty's service 
 and honour to make an end of all those proceedings. 
 Though the King may think, as the impartial world 
 does, the damages too great, yet his servants must sub- 
 mit to the course of law and justice. 
 
 " Your Lordship knows that (in allusion to a Spanish 
 phrase) I was for clearing the inkhoru in Westminster 
 Hall, long since. But the time is now come, if it ought 
 ever to be. And I trust, that his Majesty will have 
 the goodness (in the countenance and protection which 
 he is pleased to grant me) to leave this matter to me ;
 
 248 THE king's aversion [1765. 
 
 unless any particular objections yet unexplained occur 
 to his own royal mind. 
 
 " The misfortune of the Duke of Cumberland's death 
 has prevented the King from coming to St. James's to 
 day ; otherwise I would have presumed to trouble him 
 with one word upon this subject myself. 
 
 " Your Lordship will do it better for me. In the 
 meantime, let me beg, that nothing be mentioned of this 
 letter but to the person of the King himself. 
 
 " I am, my dear Lord, with the truest respect, 
 " Your affectionate and faithful humble servant, 
 
 " C. YORKE. 
 
 " P. S. Let me hear from you to-morrow morning. 
 Wednesdat/ is the first day of Term." 
 
 It was not to be supposed that the King would regard 
 with a more favourable eye Ministers to whom his em- 
 barrassments alone had compelled him to consign the 
 Government than those whom he had appointed of his 
 own free will. Indeed, of the various political sects not 
 one was so distasteful to the sovereign as that of which 
 Lord Rockingham was the acknowledged head. They 
 were at once too wealthy, too indifferent to office, too 
 much actuated by public principles, too closely bound to- 
 gether by party ties, to yield to the King, or to suit the 
 views of a Court, that required Ministers to be not the 
 public servants of the State but the private domestics 
 of the sovereign. Two years previously his Majesty 
 had declared, in allusion to the Rockingliam party, he 
 would never suffer those Ministers of the late reign, " who
 
 1765.] TO THE ROCKINGHAM ADMINISTRATION. 249 
 
 had attempted to enslave him, to come into his service 
 while he held the sceptre," '"" and although his neces- 
 sities compelled him to depart from the strict letter of 
 his vow, he appears to have contemplated the conti- 
 nuance of his Ministers in office only until he could 
 supply their places by a more subservient corps. The 
 Kino-'s disinclination to his new servants was further 
 strengthened by a circumstance not contemplated at the 
 time of their coming into office. 
 
 On the 9th of March 1764, Mr. Grenville introduced 
 his famous project of draAving a revenue from America ., 
 by means of a duty upon stamps. ,yv / Yjin^^^ .^ 
 
 Up to this period the Colonies appear to have excited 
 but little attention, either in or out of Parliament. 
 Sir Robert Walpole, true to his principle of " quieta 
 non movere," left the department entirely to the Duke l| 
 of Newcastle, who had not opened a dispatch for a \\ 
 series of years. The late Lord Essex informed Sir 
 Denis le Marchant that one of the under-secretaries of 
 that day said to him, " Mr. Grenville lost America 
 because he read the American dispatches, which his 
 predecessors had never done;" and so complete a sine- 
 cure was the Board of Trade then considered, that a 
 Colonel Bladen, one of the commissioners, happening to 
 apply himself to the duties of his office, the colonel went 
 by the name of " Trade," while his colleagues were 
 called " The Board." 
 
 The Ministers had been called to the government a 
 very short time, when they received intelligence of the 
 
 * Bedford Correspondence.
 
 250 THE STAMP ACT. [l7G5. 
 
 general resistance of the Americans to the enforcement 
 of the Act. The King would fain have brought the 
 refractory colonists to obedience by measures of coer- 
 cion, but the Rockingham Administration, desirous of re- 
 storing the loyalty of the Americans by the removal of the 
 cause of their disaffection, early announced their inten- 
 tion to stand or fall by the repeal of the obnoxious law. 
 
 The second Lord Hardwicke, after assigning, in his 
 " Memoriall," his own reasons for assenting to the 
 repeal, adds: "But, from a personal inclination of the 
 King, and influenced by Lord Bute and the Princess 
 Dowager, the followers of Court favour went the other 
 way, and half the Court at least voted in opposition to 
 Administration." 
 
 " Lord Eockingham," says Nicholls, " repealed the 
 j Stamp Act, and from that hour the King determined to 
 remove him." 
 
 Amidst many ills which the Stamp Act caused to 
 America, one advantage accrued to the new Ministry; 
 it brought them in contact with men of business, and 
 they became possessed of a knowledge of commercial 
 matters, which their predecessors had never attained. 
 
 In the following letter, from a Mr. Sparhawk to 
 Lord Rockingham, the practical working of the Act is 
 pointed out. 
 
 " My Lord, 
 
 " I have just hinted at the Act of Parliament com- 
 monly called the Stamp Act, and, without stirring the 
 (question, how far this Government has an exclusive
 
 1765] THE STAMP ACT. 251 
 
 rigid of taxing its own inhabitants, will your Lordship 
 allow me to say, that there has never happened among 
 us anything that has thrown the people of this province, 
 and indeed the whole continent, into such a conster- 
 nation as this Act has occasioned. And besides its 
 being universally disliked, it is thought by the best 
 judges here to be wholly impracticable, from the nature 
 of the Act and the peculiar circumstances of the colo- 
 nies relative to it. It is much doubted whether all the 
 circulating cash among us (which is no more than is 
 absolutely necessary for the carrying on our trade and 
 business, and answering the common occasions of life), 
 supposing the Act should be carried into execution, 
 would be sufficient to answer its demands. 
 
 " It is very plain, then, that the consequence thereof 
 would be the ruin of the trade and commerce of the 
 country; and your Lordship need not be told how 
 detrimental that must be to the trade of our mother 
 country, from whence we have imported annually such 
 an immense, I may say, an amazing quantity of her ma- 
 nufactures, to her great utility and emolument. But it 
 is to be hoped, my Lord, that the humble petition of the 
 inhabitants (not less, perhaps, than two or three mil- 
 lions) of a whole continent, which are to be presented to 
 his Majesty and the great Parliament of the nation, will 
 be graciously heard; and that in their great wisdom 
 and goodness they will remove our fears, and vouchsafe 
 us deliverance. 
 
 " The high station Providence has placed you in, my 
 Lord, will give your Lordship an opportunity of patro-
 
 f) 
 
 52 SIR GEORGE SAVILE [l765. 
 
 nizing the distressed state of these American colonies, 
 and of doing much towards the rendering of them 
 happy. Will your Lordship, then, pardon my freedom 
 in requesting the favour of your interposition on our 
 behalf, which, besides the satisfaction that must result 
 to your Lordship from the reflection, will secure to your 
 Lordship (so far as it shall be known) the esteem and 
 affections of this whole people; and your Lordship's 
 memory will be transmitted to their latest posterity 
 with every mark of honour, gratitude and respect. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, &c. 
 
 " N. Sparhawk." 
 
 Sir George Savile, inclosing an extract of a letter 
 from Boston, relating to the distress of trade, accom- 
 panied it with the following letter from himself. 
 
 " My Lord, "Rufford, November 1, 1765. 
 
 " Captain Grame writes, that I must be surprised at 
 receiving a 'naked Memorial, without a single line of 
 explanation, and void of mercantile terms, &c.' The 
 nakedness he means is, that it does not state the causes 
 of the decline of trade; the taxes; and the Spanish 
 matters. The last he says he can account for, as being 
 a matter not to be talked of aloud; the first he blames 
 much. 
 
 " I could not help observing this circumstance; and 
 yet I am not sure but it might do as well. Pointing 
 out the grievance might have looked concerted, or at 
 least the effect of party spirit ; and the cause does not
 
 1765.] TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. 253 
 
 want pointing out. Their saying they are hurt, and 
 drawing no consequences, has really, I think, more the 
 air of sincerity. You can find out what hurts them. 
 They speak as ignorant men. Our trade is hurt^ what 
 the devil have you been a doing f For our part, ive dorCt 
 fretend to understand your politics and American mat^ 
 ters, but our trade is hurt ; prai/ remedy it, and a plague 
 of you if you wont. 
 
 " To say, Doctor, that medicine has made me worse, 
 may be pique or prejudice against the doctor; but to 
 tell the doctor simply, one is worse, is the natural com- 
 plaining of a man who really is worse. You may say, 
 Gentlemen, you see these people had no acrimony 
 against any man, but the effect breaks out. The testi- 
 mony is sincere. I have no answer from Leeds or 
 Wakefield. I wont say this is singular, because it is so 
 from Leeds and Wakefield, but if grammar was out of 
 my way, I should say so. 
 
 " Hartley has told your Lordship that I have no 
 hobby-horse to ride to town upon. That is a very civil 
 phrase. I do not mean to affect any modesty, and 
 therefore will preface by saying, I find my talents in 
 some ways better than I thought. I find them worse in 
 the questions of finance. I can only say, I have the 
 strongest faith in his opinions about them, and the 
 critical and decisive moment of doing things whole. If 
 he be right, I do beg most earnestly you will not refine, 
 and mince, and do pretty well. Do it. Do it! and 
 ' now, now, now ! ' You flattered me much by observ- 
 ing the phrase, so you will know it again. It did not
 
 254 LORD HARDWICKE [l7C5. 
 
 come from the head. He is disheartened. One thing I 
 am sure of. You advertise that G. G. should have 
 continued Minister if you ride the heat as he did. He 
 waited, and lay in a good place till he came to the ending 
 post. I beseech you, make the play, if you are stout. 
 
 " Captain Grame, to supply the baldness of the 
 Memorial, sends me the enclosed extract. 
 " I am, with my best compliments to the Marchioness, 
 
 " My Lord, 
 " Your most obedient, most humble servant, 
 
 " G. Savile." 
 
 " (Lord Rockingham)." 
 
 Prior to the meeting of Parliament, Lord Hardwicke 
 was invited to attend the ministerial meetings, but it was 
 not till the following year that he became a member of 
 the Cabinet. He had been previously invited to accept 
 oflSce, but he declined on the plea of his health. 
 
 THE EARL OF HARDWICKE TO THE HON. CHARLES YORKE. 
 
 " St. James's Square, December 9th, 1 1Q5, 
 
 " Dear Brother, " h at night. 
 
 " I had not an opportunity of acquainting you last 
 night, that when I waited on the Duke of Newcastle 
 he asked me, without my having said anything which 
 led to it, whether I should like to attend their meetings, 
 viz., of the Ministers? I gave no direct answer, but 
 rather of the declining kind. His Grace bid me con- 
 sider of it, and talk with you upon it, and seemed to 
 make no doubt of its being acceptable to his colleagues.
 
 1765.] TO CHARLES YORKE. 255 
 
 This may be only a morning cajolerie^ in which our old 
 friend is a great adept, and I shall certainly not revive 
 the subject; but if he says anything more upon it, shall 
 leave it to his Grace and the other Ministers to do as 
 they think proper. We shall see a little clearer after 
 Tuesday, how the world is like to go, for I cannot help 
 thinking that if the opposition are in spirits, and in 
 numbers, they will kick up a riot the very first day. 
 I presume his Grace meant, by attending their meetings, 
 that I should be of the Cabinet Council. It would 
 flatter my ambition (that is certain), and I hope I do 
 not overrate my abilities in thinking that I should 
 make as good a figure in it as many we have known 
 called to that smictum sanctorum. I am clear in opinion, 
 not to ask for it; but if it should be offered ^ I see no 
 reason for declining it, most sincerely wishing, for the 
 sake of the kingdom, that it was filled with persons of 
 the best abilities and experience, who could agree to 
 act together. I do not expect an answer to this, but 
 if anything occurs, shall be glad to hear from you on 
 the subject." 
 
 Although Ministers had, soon after their coming into 
 ofiice, become aware of the dark cloud of discontent 
 that lowered in America, it was not till near the meet- 
 ing of Parliament that they heard the storm had burst. 
 One general feeling of indignation appears to have per- 
 vaded the colonies, on hearing that the Stamp Act had 
 received the Royal Assent. At New York the towns- 
 people reprinted the Act, and hawked it about the
 
 ^ 
 
 256 THE KING TO GENERAL S.CONWAY. [l765. 
 
 streets as " England's folly and America's ruin." At 
 Philadelphia the guns were spiked. At Boston the 
 flags of the vessels in harbour were hoisted half-mast 
 high, while muffled bells tolled a funeral knell. In 
 Virginia, Patrick Henry, one of the Members of Con- 
 gress, he whom Byron designates 
 
 " the forest-born Demosthenes, 
 
 Whose thunder shook the Philip of the seas," 
 
 exclaimed, " Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First 
 his Oliver Cromwell, and George the Third may — " here 
 cries of " Treason " drowned for a while the speaker's 
 words. When the tumult subsided, he adroitly added — 
 " profit by their example." 
 
 It was the news of these proceedings which led to 
 the following letter from 
 
 the king to the right hon. henry seymour conway. 
 
 " Lieut.-General Conway, 
 
 " The enclosed is the memorial from Mr. Pitt. It is 
 the copy of the one delivered by me to Lord Halifax, 
 but I received this a day or two before that one. I am 
 more and more grieved at the accounts of America. 
 Where this spirit will end is not to be said. It is, 
 undoubtedly, the most serious matter that ever came 
 before Parliament; it requires more deliberation, can- 
 dour, and temper than I fear it will meet with. 
 
 " 53 m. past five, p.m. 
 
 " When the Memorial is copied, I desire to have the 
 original returned."
 
 1765.] OPENING OF PARLIAMENT. 257 
 
 Endorsed by General Conway, " His Majesty, Dec. 5, 
 1765, opinion on America." 
 
 On the 17 th of December, the following letter was 
 written by 
 
 THE KING TO THE MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHAM. 
 
 " I RETURN you the list of Peers that attended the 
 reading of the Speech last night. I am glad to see 
 names among them that I thought doubtfully of before. 
 In the evening, you will not forget to send me word 
 whether there has been a debate. 
 " Past eleven, a. m." 
 
 On the same day, the King opened the Session in 
 person. In his Speech from the Throne, he stated 
 that he had called the Two Houses together sooner 
 than usual, in consequence " of matters of importance 
 which had lately occurred in some of his Colonies in 
 America."* 
 
 Lord George Cavendish f moved, and Lord Palmer- 
 ston 'I seconded the Address. No debate was expected, 
 
 * Parliamentary History, xvi. 83. 
 
 t Lord George Cavendish, second son of William, fourth Duke of 
 Devonshire, — Member for Derbyshire, which county he represented in 
 seven Parliaments. He was Comptroller of the Household in 17G1 ; 
 a Privy Councillor, and, in 1766, Lord Lieutenant of Derbyshire. 
 
 I Henry Temple, second Viscount Palmerston. He had been a 
 Lord of Trade, and was now appointed to the Admiralty Board. He 
 was member for East Loo. He was a man of considerable accomplish- 
 ments. Lord Palmerston was, in the male line, the representative of 
 
 VOL. I. S
 
 258 OPENING OF PARLIAMENT. [l765. 
 
 as the Members who had vacated their seats, by accept- 
 ing office, were absent on their canvass. But Mr. 
 Grenville, perceiving that his Colonial policy would be 
 called in question, proposed, as an amendment, to " ex- 
 press the indignation of the House at the ' outrageous 
 tumults ' in North America." " He spoke," says Mr. 
 Cooke,"'' ^^ 671 prince, and told us he should ask why the 
 Parliament was not called together sooner, why his 
 Majesty was advised to speak with so much lenity, and 
 many other whys." * 
 
 On the 19th, the Duke of Bedford, who was at this 
 time acting with his late official colleague, Mr. Grenville, 
 moved for all papers that had been sent to America 
 relating to the Stamp Act, and since the passing of it. 
 The Duke of Grafton quashed that proposal, by pro- 
 mising all the papers should be produced. 
 
 the Temple family, as the Duke of Buckingham was of the female line. 
 He was succeeded in his title and estates in I 802, by the recent Secre- 
 tary of State for Foreign Affairs. 
 
 * George Cooke, Member for Middlesex, Prothonotary of the Court 
 of Common Pleas; " a pompous Jacobite," according to Walpole. In 
 Lord Chatham's motley administration, Cooke was joint Paymaster- 
 General with Lord North. It was in reference to the discordant 
 politics of these two colleagues, that Burke said, " Persons had a 
 single office divided between them, who had never spoke to each other 
 in their lives, until they found themselves, they knew not how, 
 pigging together heads and points in the same truckle bed." 
 
 t Chatham Correspondence.
 
 1705.] THE KING TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. 259 
 
 THE KING TO THE MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHAM. 
 
 " (Dec. 19th, 1765), 13 min. past 8, p. m. 
 
 " Lord Eockinghasi, 
 
 " The few squibs on the address would have appeared 
 to me as planned by a late Secretary of State, ^ even if 
 he had not been a speaker this day. From that quarter 
 I make no doubt but every art will be used to hamper 
 Administration during every debate; but that is so 
 poor a conduct that it must turn against its own 
 author. 
 
 " The Duke of Bedford's motion seems to be most 
 extraordinary, for one would think it were necessary to 
 weigh every paper carefully before they either them- 
 selves or by any committee, direct any of them to be 
 printed." 
 
 To the Ministerial Leader of the House of Commons, 
 the King wrote as follows : — 
 
 " Lieut.-General Conway, 
 
 " I thank you for your attention in sending me the 
 account of the very ungentleraanlike conduct of Mr. 
 Grenville on this day, for others of the Opposition, un- 
 doubtedly, act in the House of Commons by his advice. 
 
 " I hope people will be on their guard to-morrow, if 
 he should again try to give some pain."t 
 
 * Mr. Grenville proposed the House should adjourn, but to the 
 9th instead of the 14th (Jan.), as Ministers intended. The motion 
 was rejected by 77 to 35. 
 
 f Egerton MSS. 984.— British Museum. 
 
 s 2
 
 2G0 THE KING TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. [l765. 
 
 A reference to the " Bedford Correspondence """' will 
 show, that on the 31st of the following month the Duke 
 of Bedford and Mr. Grenville, whose conduct the King 
 here arraigns, received secret invitations from the Court 
 to return to administration. 
 
 The parliamentary records of this period of history 
 are so scanty, that I have difficulty in assigning dates 
 to the two letters which follow. 
 
 It appears that on the 27th of December, 1765, 
 " Lord Temple declared that there was no truth in the 
 reports spread of differences between himself and Mr. 
 Pitt," " and, disheartened at so unpromising an outset of 
 the session, he had the confidence and meanness to hurry 
 to Mr. Pitt at Bath, but that Mr. Pitt was inflexible.^' 
 
 THE KING TO THE MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHAM. 
 
 " I AM obliged to you for your summary account of 
 this day's debate, and shall be curious to-morrow to 
 hear the grounds of Lord Temple's so total a change of 
 opinion. 
 
 "10 min. past 10, p, m." 
 
 THE KING TO THE MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHAM. 
 
 " If Lord Rockingham has nothing particular, except 
 Lord Temple's language yesterday, I will not give him 
 the trouble of coming till a little after two to-morrow, 
 at St. James's, as I shall go to church at twelve. 
 
 " 20 past 9, A. M." 
 
 * Vol. iii. pp. 325-9.
 
 1765.] CHARACTER OF LORD DENBIGH. 261 
 
 The Ministers had now become aware of the preca- 
 riousness of their position. Lord Bute aflfected to hold 
 the balance between the late and the present admi- 
 nistrations; and "the Crown itself," says Walpole, 
 " seemed inclined to consign its members to turn against 
 its own measures. Lest mankind should mistake the 
 part the Favourite intended to take on the Stamp Act, 
 Lord Denbigh, * his Standard-bearer, and Augustus 
 Hervey, asked leave to resign their places, as they pur- 
 posed to vote against the repeal. The farce was carried 
 on by the King; and to prevent any panic in the minds 
 of those who might have a mind to act the same part, 
 his Majesty told them that they were at liberty to vote 
 against him and keep their places y 
 
 * Basil Fielding, sixth Earl of Denbigh, born 1 7 1 9, a creature of Lord 
 Bute, and Master of the Harriers. In his youth he resided abroad nine 
 years with Lord Bolingbroke. Cradock thinks he acquired much of 
 his subtilty in debate from his long intimacy with that nobleman. 
 If by the epithet " Standard-bearer," Walpole meant that Denbigh 
 was the point round which the " King's Friends " were in the habit 
 of rallying, we find him, eighteen years later, serving the same 
 purpose. " The Rolliad," speaking of the Peers of Scotland, who 
 assisted in throwing out Fox's famous " India Bill," says, — 
 
 " With every change prepared to change their note, 
 With every government prepared to vote ; 
 Save when, perhaps, on some important bill, 
 They know, by second sight, the royal will. 
 With loyal Denbigli heading birds that sing. 
 Oppose the JMinister to please the King." 
 
 In 1770, when the Peers drove the Commons from their House, 
 almost by main force, Colonel Barre drew a severe picture of the 
 Court Lords, particularly of the Earls of Marchmont and Denbigh. 
 —See Walpole's George the Third, iv. 228.
 
 262 CORRESPONDENCE ON [1766. 
 
 The above remarks are corroborated by the letter 
 which follows. 
 
 THE EARL OF HARDWICKE TO THE HON. CHARLES YORKE. 
 " Dear Brother, "St. James's Square, Jan, .3rd, 1766. 
 
 " The Ministry are much alarmed, and apprehend a 
 strong division in our House, if any question should 
 arise. They are making out lists of Lords, Pro, Con.^ 
 and Doubtful. Lord Rockingham shows an inclination 
 to insert a few stronger words in the third Resolution. 
 » Lord Temple pronounces them gone^ and is in high 
 spirits. The King's family and household are divided. 
 I wish his Majesty himself is not neuter ; and this I 
 collect from what Lord Rockingham told me, that the 
 King professes to know nothing of what Lord Bute is 
 doing, and yet will not speak to his servants, nor send 
 to Lord Bute. The Prince of Brunswick (I think) 
 told Lord R. the last particular, for I do not believe 
 the Marquis ventured to suggest so strong a measure. 
 I know not what will come of all this emhroglio. The 
 Ministry should in prudence leave their adversaries as 
 weak ground to attack them upon as possible. Lord 
 B. will overturn every Ministry who do not court him, 
 and yet they most all disclaim him by turns. The 
 King should banish him. 
 
 " P.S. This intelligence is material, or I should not 
 send it." 
 
 The general belief at this period apj^ears to have
 
 17GG.] PROPOSED CHANGE OF MINISTRY. 2G3 
 
 been that Pitt, in refusing his assistance to the Kock- 
 ingham Administration, hoped to form a government 
 composed of his two brothers-in-law and his kinsman, 
 Lord Lyttleton. Lord Hardwicke, writing to his bro- 
 ther, Charles Yorke, on the 18th of July 1765, when 
 the Attorney-Generalship was offered him, says, 
 
 " I cannot conclude without taking up some points in 
 your letter relative to the general state of affairs. You 
 seem to think from such hints as you have received 
 that Mr. Pitt, the Grenvilles, and Lord Lyttleton mean to 
 come back, and put themselves at the head of the new 
 system. I can understand Mr. Pitt's becoming, before 
 it is long and when these new Ministers are at a plunge, 
 a part, or rather the head, of this Administration, in 
 some shape or other; but in the present moment, I 
 cannot combine the Grenvilles (G. G. especially) and 
 Lord L. with the great Commoner, unless all this dif- 
 ference between Mr. P. and his brother-in-law is a 
 political bam.''^ 
 
 The writer of the following letter, it will be seen, 
 entertained a similar opinion. 
 
 THE EARL OF ALBEMARLE TO THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE. 
 
 " Tuesday (Jan. 7th, 1766), past 4 o'clock. 
 " In hopes of seeing your Grace I have called twice 
 upon you to-day, and will wait upon you as early to- 
 morrow morning as you please. If I had the honour 
 of the King's ear, I would advise his Majesty not to 
 remove so faithful and so attached a servant to his
 
 264 DUKE OF NEWCASTLE [l766. 
 
 family as the Duke of Newcastle from council, though 
 Mr. Pitt desired it, or rather ea^pected he should. I 
 should likewise advise his Majesty to refuse the remov- 
 ing of the Marquis of Rockingham from the head of the 
 Treasury in favour of Lord Temple, or even making the 
 offer, if sure of his refusing it. 
 
 " I remain, &c. 
 
 " P.S. I have not been very partial to Mr. Pitt for 
 some time past. I dread and abhor the thoughts of a 
 Grenville Administration." 
 
 LORD JOHN CAVENDISH TO THE MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHAM. 
 
 [With Lord Albemarle's copy enclosed.] 
 
 " I WENT to Court in hopes of meeting with you, to 
 show the enclosed letter from Lord Albemarle, which 
 some people at Newcastle House thought might as well 
 be shown to the King. I wish nothing may be done to 
 confirm him (the King) in his aversion to sending for 
 Pitt, for as he must, sooner or later, swallow the pill, 
 the fewer wry faces he makes the better." 
 
 THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE TO THE MARQUIS OF 
 
 ROCKINGHAM. 
 
 "Newcastle House, Jan. 9th, 1766. 
 
 " I CANNOT avoid taking the first opportunity to 
 
 thank your Lordship for the noble and honourable part 
 
 which you took last night upon the consideration of 
 
 Mr. Pitt's discourse with Mr. T. Townshend, jun,, and
 
 17G6.] TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. 265 
 
 for your extreme goodness to me, which will make the 
 continuauce of my affection and attachment to your 
 Lordship a debt of gratitude, as well as an act of judg- 
 ment and inclination. I should, however, ill deserve it, 
 if I omitted to suggest anything that I thought for 
 your Lordshij^s service. If the Duke of Grafton and 
 Mr. Conway should resign their oflfice, I do not know 
 how you will be able to fill them. The strength of the 
 Administration will be much lessened by the loss of 
 those two very able and material men in both Houses, 
 and the weight of opposition so much increased by 
 Mr. Pitt's setting himself at the head of it, that I really 
 do not know how you will be able to go on, and there- 
 fore I would humbly submit it to your Lordship, how 
 far you would resist the Duke of Grafton and Mr. Con- 
 way if they should persist in advising the King, this 
 day, to send for Mr. Pitt, to hear what he has to say, 
 and particularly to know his thoughts about the Ame- 
 rican affairs. The cordial and affectionate manner in 
 which you acted towards me on this occasion yesterday, 
 and ever since you have been informed of Mr. Pitt's 
 exclusion of me, has given me a sufficient proof of your 
 goodness; and I must desire that you will have no 
 further thoughts of me, or suffer me to be in any degree 
 an obstacle to what, in other respects, it may be right 
 for your Lordship to do, with respect to the King, the 
 public, and yourself I shall desire nothing but your 
 confidence and friendship, and that I shall hope for in 
 its full extent, whether in or out of employment."
 
 266 THE KING [176G. 
 
 THE KING TO THE MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHAM. 
 
 "Lord Rockingham, "January 9th, 1 766. 
 
 " I return you the speech and address of the Lords, 
 which I think will do perfectly well. I am not sur- 
 prised that, at so very serious a moment, they should 
 have escaped your memory this morning. 
 
 " I have revolved, most coolly and attentively, the 
 business now before me, and am of opinion, that so 
 loose a conversation as that of Mr. Pitt and Mr. Towns- 
 hend is not sufficient to risk either my dignity or the 
 continuance of my administration, by a fresh treaty 
 with that gentleman; for if it should miscarry, all 
 public opinion of this ministry would be destroyed by 
 such an attempt. I shall therefore, undoubtedly, to- 
 morrow, decline authorizing the Duke of Grafton to 
 say anything to Mr. Pitt, and don't doubt that, when 
 I set the example of steadiness, most of you will see the 
 propriety of that conduct, and will follow it also. I 
 wish, therefore, you would be at St. James's by one 
 to-morrow, that I may talk this affair over with you, 
 previous to my seeing the two Secretaries of State. 
 The Duke of Newcastle's conduct this day was very 
 handsome and dignified. 
 
 " George R." 
 
 " The fact was," says Walpole, " the King, not de- 
 sirous of the junction of Pitt and the actual Ministei's, 
 and choosing that Pitt should solely to him owe his
 
 1760.] TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. 2G7 
 
 admission, pleaded tliat he had sent so often for Mr. Pitt 
 in vain, that he would condescend no more, — a resolu- 
 tion his Majesty was at that very time in the intention 
 not to keep." * 
 
 The above statement explains the following letter 
 from 
 
 the king to the marquis of rockingham. 
 
 " Lord Kockingiiam, 
 
 " You have very properly put an end to the idea of 
 writing to Mr. Pitt. I don't doubt of success, but if 
 you in the least seem to hesitate, inferiors will fly off. 
 
 "Queen's House, 30 min. past 10." 
 
 " The King," writes Lord Hardwicke at this time to 
 his brother, '' is extremely unwilling to let in the 
 Trojan Horsey 
 
 On the 11th of January, Lord Rockingham wrote to 
 Mr. Charles Yorke :; — 
 
 " The continual hurry, from the late occasion, 
 occupies my mind so much, that I can hardly remem- 
 ber anything, or else I should not have forgot the 
 memorandum in your letter, of sending you the speech 
 and address 
 
 " No message or note will be sent to Bath,t but 
 whether — if the person comes to town — it may not be 
 
 * George the Third, ii. 320. 
 t Mr. Pitt was then residing at Bath.
 
 268 THE KING TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. [1766. 
 
 pressed that he should have an audience, is still matter 
 of doubt to me." . . 
 
 Parliament, which had adjourned for the Christmas 
 holidays, re-assembled on the 14th of January. 
 
 THE KING TO THE MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHAM. 
 
 " Lord EoCKINGHAM, "(Jan. U, 1766.) 
 
 " I return you the list of the Peers that were at the 
 meeting last night. Upon the whole I think it a full 
 meeting, considering the numbers in town; yet am 
 surprised at not seeing the names therein of some 
 persons that are in my service. I desire you will 
 send me, when the House is up this evening, the names 
 of the speakers, with P and C at the end of their 
 names, according to the sides they take ; and also to state 
 the amendments proposed. I entirely agree with you in 
 opinion, that if Government fluctuate [in] their mea- 
 sures, to oblige every person that finds fault, that it 
 would be both endless and weak. Coolness, and the 
 attempting to pursue prudent measures, and that with 
 firmness, is the only way to obtain either credit or the 
 approbation of wise men. 
 
 " George R." 
 
 " Eleven, a. m." 
 
 In the debate on the address, Mr. Pitt, after stating 
 that he was " unconnected and unconsulted," declared 
 that he could not give his confidence to Ministers. 
 
 " Confidence," said Mr. Pitt, " is a plant of slow
 
 17G6.] DISINGENUOUSNESS OF PITT. 2G9 
 
 growt h ill an aged bosom ; youth is the season of cre- 
 dulity ; by comparing events with each other, methinks 
 I plainly discover the traces of an overruling influence. 
 I had the honour to serve the Crown, and if I could 
 have submitted to influence, I might still have con- 
 tinued to serve." 
 
 The speech from which the above is an extract, is 
 equally remarkable for its beautiful language and its 
 disingenuous insinuations. 
 
 Mr. Pitt states that he was " unconsulted." In a 
 letter of the 3rd January, from the Duke of Newcastle 
 to Lord Rockingham, his Grace remarks, "I am ex- 
 tremely glad to find that the King and the Ministers 
 have thought proper to learn Mr. Pitt's sentiments upon 
 this great question, the repeal of the Stamp Act; and 
 I hope regard will be had to them." 
 
 Again, as regards the charge of submitting to an 
 " overruling influence," it is only necessary to refer the 
 reader to the Duke of Cumberland's letter of the 25th 
 of June, 1765, showing that Mr. Pitt was ready to 
 acquiesce in so large a measure of this " influence," that 
 his Eoyal Highness found " the King already intrench- 
 ing himself within Pitt's promises of mercy to so many 
 particulars."* 
 
 Lord Rockingham's next letter to the King shows the 
 injurious effect of this unfriendly speech upon the Go- 
 vernment. It affords evidence of the coldness that was 
 beginning to spring up between Pitt and the brother-in- 
 law, on whose account he had so lately refused to accept 
 * See ante, p. 214, line 14.
 
 270 LORD ROCKINGHAM TO THE KING. [l766. 
 
 office. The fact is, Pitt was displeased with Temple 
 for his opposition to the repeal of the Stamp Act, and 
 Temple with Pitt for not consenting to form a " Gren- 
 ville connection." 
 
 THE MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHA.M TO GEORGE THE THIRD. 
 
 a gjj^ "Jan. 15, 1766. 
 
 "It is great presumption in me to venture to intrude 
 upon your Majesty the thoughts which occur to me on 
 so critical a situation as the present. But the con- 
 sciousness of that unfeigned zeal, duty, and gratitude 
 which I shall ever feel for your Majesty's Eoyal person, 
 emboldens me to transmit in writing, the opinion which 
 my judgment has directed. 
 
 " That your Majesty's present Administration will be 
 shook to the greatest degree, if no further attempt is 
 made to get Mr. Pitt to take a cordial part, is much too 
 apparent to be disguised. That the chance of Mr. Pitt's 
 cordiality to Administration appears very doubtful after 
 what passed with Mr. Townshend, is also very true. 
 That the events of yesterday in the House of Commons 
 have shown the amazing powers and influence which 
 Mr. Pitt has, whenever he takes part in debate. 
 
 " His declaration in the debate, roundly and posi- 
 tively against all the measures of the late Administra- 
 tion, has given him great credit, and gratified the 
 animosity of many who now form the firm support of 
 the present Administration. 
 
 " His personal altercations with Mr. G. Grenville,
 
 170G.] THE KING TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. 271 
 
 and the conduct of Lord Temple in the House of Lords, 
 who was peevish, and who dissented to every assertion 
 of Mr. Pitt's, has made very many now believe that 
 Mr. Pitt is more separated from G. Grenville and Lord 
 Temple, than could have been relied on some days ago ; 
 and in that light strengthened the Duke of Grafton's 
 and General Conway's ideas, that Mr. Pitt might be 
 separated from them." 
 
 THE KING TO THE MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHAM. 
 
 " I THINK your sending a written answer to Mr. Pitt, 
 extremely dangerous, and, therefore, am clearly of opi- 
 nion that your even seeing him alone is preferable. I, 
 at the same time, confess that I think the Duke of 
 Grafton has more delicacy than there appears cause 
 for, in declining accompanying you. I recommend it 
 strongly to you, to avoid a long conversation, by saying 
 your business only permits you to call for a few minutes. 
 Be extremely civil, but firm in what you say; and as 
 the Duke of Grafton will not accompany you, I think 
 the showing him the impracticability of his answer to 
 my first question is necessary. Pray, as soon as you 
 have seen him, send me a line how things have passed. 
 As to the full explanation, that may wait till I see you 
 to-morrow. I am much pleased that Opposition has 
 forced you to hear your own voice, which I hope will 
 encourage you to stand forth in other debates. 
 
 " Talbot is as right as I can desire, in the Stamp Act 
 — strong for our declaring our right, but willing to
 
 272 CHARACTER OF LORD TALBOT. [1766. 
 
 repeal ; and has handsomely offered to attend the House 
 daily, and answer the very indecent conduct of those 
 who oppose with so little manners or candour. 
 "10 min. past 9, a.m." 
 
 The words, " Talbot is as right as I can desire," must 
 have been read by the Minister with a smile. The 
 King, disingenuous on system to all around him, was 
 here practising a kind of fraud upon himself. He 
 affected to take pride in the support of a servant whom 
 he would have dismissed on the first symptom of oppo- 
 sition to his will. But there was no cause for appre- 
 hension. Independence was no part of Lord Talbot's 
 character, as twenty-one years' subserviency fully 
 proved. " He had," says Walpole, " some wit, and a 
 little tincture of a disordered understanding, but was 
 better known as a boxer and a man of pleasure, than 
 in the light of a statesman." In the less formal age 
 of Charles or Henry Tudor, Lord Talbot might have 
 rivalled Archy or Will Somers. As it was, the Lord 
 Steward of the Household greatly enlivened, when he 
 did not seriously irritate, those with whom his office 
 brought him in contact. 
 
 He was the son of William, Earl Talbot, Lord Hard- 
 wicke's immediate predecessor on the Woolsack. His 
 features were comely ; his form was symmetrical. But 
 neitlier dress nor demeanour improved these advan- 
 tages. It naturally excited surprise, that an avowed 
 profligate should be the regulator of a decorous 
 Court, and the apparent confidant of a pious Prince.
 
 176G.] CIIARACTER OF LORD TALBOT. 273 
 
 Hardly was he appointed to the Stewardship, when 
 he set up for a reformer of the Household expenses. 
 The Royal cooks fell suddenly on evil times; the smoke 
 curled sparingly from kitchen chimneys; a voice of 
 lamentation, over scanty breakfasts, was heard among 
 the maids of honour and pages; and gentlemen in 
 waiting groaned over their daily bill of fare. When 
 a batch of Peers was spoken of, it was asked if any 
 Dukes were to be made ? " Oh yes," replied Lord 
 Chesterfield, "there is one. It is Lord Talbot; he is 
 to be created Duke Humphrey, and no table is to be 
 kept at Court but his." 
 
 Success begat confidence. At the Coronation ban- 
 quet, Earl Talbot abolished the table of the Knights of 
 the Bath, nor did he yield to the sarcasm of Sir William 
 Stanhope, who significantly remarked that ^^ some of 
 them were gentlemen." On the same occasion, however, 
 the reformer nearly pushed his parsimony too far. He 
 threatened to deal with the Corporation of London as 
 he had dealt with the Knights of the Bath and the 
 Barons of the Cinque Ports. But Alderman Beckford 
 stood up for the immemorial privileges of his order to 
 fare sumptuously, and intimated to the Lord Steward, 
 that it was hard if the Citizens should have no dinner 
 when they must give the King one, which would cost 
 them ten thousand pounds.* The menace prevailed, 
 and the municipal board was at least decently furnished. 
 
 Lord Talbot, however, amused as Avell as mortified 
 the guests at the coronation. He was bound, as cham- 
 
 * Walpole's George the Third, i. 74. 
 VOL. L T
 
 274 CHARACTER OF LORD TALBOT. [l766. 
 
 pion, to appear on horseback before their Majesties, 
 and, with a proper sense of decorum, he sedulously 
 trained his charger to move backward as well as for- 
 ward, so that on leaving the Royal presence, both the 
 horse and the rider might retire, as Ajax retired from 
 the Trojans, 
 
 " Undaunted, and presenting still his face." 
 
 But, alas! the overtoward brute had learned his lesson 
 " not wisely, but too well." Like an inexperienced 
 actor, he overdid his part, and backed into the Hall 
 of Rufus, thereby exposing the " stout Earl Talbot " 
 to the inextinguishable laughter of the crowd, and par- 
 ticularly of those whose " sizes he had scanted." 
 
 The Lord Steward's misadventure was not lost upon 
 John Wilkes, soon after at open war with the Court. 
 In No. — of the " North Briton," he gives a narrative 
 of Earl Talbot's " false presentation," from which a few 
 extracts are here selected. 
 
 " A politeness equal to Lord Talbot's horse ought not 
 to pass unnoticed. Caligula's horse had not half the 
 merit. We remember how nobly he was provided for. 
 What proportion of merit between his lordship and his 
 horse, and how far the pension * should be divided 
 between them, I will not take upon me to determine. 
 The impartial and inimitable pen of Cervantes has 
 made Rosinante immortal as well as Don Quixote. 
 Lord Talbot's horse, like the great planet in Milton, 
 
 * Danced about in various rounds his wandering course.' 
 
 At different times he was progressive, retrograde, or 
 
 * " His Lordship has a pension." — Note by Wilkes.
 
 17G6.] CHARACTER OF LORD TALBOT. 275 
 
 standing still. The progressive motion, I should rather 
 think to be the merit of the horse, the retrograde motion 
 the merit of the noble lord." 
 
 When the squib met Lord Talbot's eye, he wrote to 
 Wilkes to ask if he was its author, and a long corre- 
 spondence ensued. Wilkes at length proposed, and 
 Colonel Berkeley, on the part of Lord Talbot, consented, 
 that the principals, attended by their seconds, should 
 sup together at the Eed Lion at Bagshot, on the Tues- 
 day evening, and fight on the Wednesday. The parties 
 met at the time appointed. Lord Talbot wished to 
 finish the business immediately. Wilkes replied, that, 
 as an idle man of pleasure, he had put off some 
 important business; and added, that he had just left 
 the jovial monks of St. Francis, and the world would 
 conclude he was drunk, and form no favourable opinion 
 of his Lordship. Talbot persisted, and they repaired 
 to the garden of the inn. " It was near seven o'clock," 
 says Wilkes. " The moon shone very bright. We 
 stood about eight yards distant. Both our pistols were 
 in very exact time, but neither took effect. Lord Talbot 
 then desired we might drink a bottle of claret together ; 
 which," adds Wilkes, " we did with great good humour 
 and much laughter." 
 
 On the 21st of January the great question of the 
 repeal of the Stamp Act was brought before the House 
 of Commons by General Conway, and leave was given 
 to brini? in the Bill. Mr. Grenville endeavoured to 
 substitute the words " explain and amend " instead of 
 " repeal," but his motion was rejected by 275 to 167.
 
 27G DEBATES ON THE STAMP ACT. [l766. 
 
 THE KING TO THE MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHAM. 
 
 " I JUST take up my pen to thank you for your atten- 
 tion in sending me a few particulars of this day's 
 debate in the House of Commons, which, by the great 
 majority, must be reckoned a very favourable appear- 
 ance for the repeal of the Stamp Act in that House. 
 "13 min. past 12, a.m." 
 
 In reference to this division, the Duke of Bedford 
 states, that Sir LaAvrence Dundas informed him that a 
 person, " whom," writes his Grace, " he did not name, 
 but I suppose to be Colonel Graeme, had told him that 
 he never saw the King so affected as he was at the 
 result of the last great majority in the House of Com- 
 mons, and that he believed he wished for nothing more 
 than to be able to change his Administration." '"' 
 
 And yet the next letter from the King is in the 
 following strain. 
 
 " Lord Kockingham, 
 
 " I am much pleased that the appearance was so good 
 yesterday. I hope you will be, if possible, by twelve at 
 St. James's, as my levee will be half an hour past 
 twelve, that I may hear some further particulars of the 
 debate. 
 
 "50 min. past 10, a.m." 
 
 * Bedford Correspondence, iii. 327.
 
 1760.] CHARACTER OF LORD NORTHINGTON. 277 
 
 The following letter, though bearing no specific date, 
 appears to have been written by his Majesty on the 
 same occasion. 
 
 " Lieut.-General Conavay, 
 
 " Nothing can in my eyes be more advantageous 
 than the debate in the House of Commons this day. I 
 shall not fail when I see you this day [to ask you for 
 a list of speakers],* that I may more fully hear the 
 colour of the language of those that spoke : it will give 
 some kind of rule to judge of their future conduct this 
 session. 
 
 "13 min. past 10." 
 
 While the private letters of George the Third ex- 
 pressed nothing but cordiality towards the Ministers, 
 and approbation of their plan of repealing the Stamp 
 Act, and while Lord Talbot and a detachment of King's 
 friends were making a show of support, a strenuous 
 opposition was organized against the measure by the 
 main body of the same corps, under the leadership of 
 Lord Chancellor Northington. 
 
 Robert Henley, the scion of an ancient Somersetshire 
 family, was born in 1708. He received his education 
 at "Westminster School, having for a contemporary, 
 William Murray, afterwards the celebrated Earl of 
 Mansfield. Murray was a King's scholar; Henley a 
 
 * The words within brackets are not in the original, but they 
 comprise the usual requirement of the King from his Ministers.
 
 278 CHARACTER OF LORD NORTHINGTON. [l760. 
 
 town boy. After graduating at Oxford, the two school- 
 fellows were called to the bar at nearly the same time. 
 It was said of Murray, that " he drank champaign 
 with the wits." Port wine, and the company of a few 
 choice spirits satisfied Henley's less refined but more 
 jovial tastes. His practice at this time consisted in 
 taking notes, cracking forensic jokes, and in arranging 
 oyster suppers. From his family connections he made 
 choice of the Western Circuit, of which, in process of 
 time, he became the leader. 
 
 It was the fashion in those days for young barristers 
 to spend their vacations at Bath. Thither Henley sped, 
 and passed his time very much to his satisfaction, in 
 dancing with the young ladies in the Pump-room, and 
 in tippling with the old gentlemen in the taverns. 
 There happened at this period to be at Bath, for the 
 benefit of the waters, a Miss Husband. This young 
 lady was of exquisite beauty, but so much of an invalid 
 as to be unable to stir out of doors, unless wheeled about 
 in a chair. Powerless as she seemed to be, she made a 
 conquest of our lawyer's heart. He pleaded and gained 
 his cause. Miss Husband made a wonderful recovery, 
 consigned over her votive crutches to the nymph of the 
 spring, danced a minuet with her handsome lover, and 
 in due time became Mrs. Henley. The happy, but not 
 very wealthy pair, did not indeed retire to " love in a 
 cottage," but to a small house near Bedford Square, 
 and to such economical dinners as briefless barristers 
 can best afford. After a few years, Henley, by the 
 death of his elder brother, came into the family pro-
 
 1766.] CHARACTER OF LORD NORTIIINGTON. 279 
 
 perty; but his tastes were now formed, and he con- 
 tinued in his profession. 
 
 Bath had already helped Henley to an agreeable 
 helpmate. The next favours were of a different descrip- 
 tion. The good stories of the convivial counsellor 
 made an impression on the snug corporation of Bladud, 
 and they first elected him their representative in Par- 
 liament, and then made him their Recorder. Like 
 other political adventurers, particularly of his pro- 
 fession, Henley became an adherent of Leicester House, 
 and when, in 1751, a partial dispersion of that party 
 was occasioned by the death of Frederick, the wily 
 lawyer, preferring the worship of the rising to the 
 setting sun, attached himself to the new heir apparent, 
 upon the formation of whose establishment as Prince 
 of Wales, Henley became his Solicitor- General. From 
 this time forth a series of unforeseen circumstances 
 caused his rapid rise. In 1756, his schoolfellow, 
 Murray, unable any longer to endure the badgering of 
 Pitt, sought refuge in the House of Lords, and Henley 
 stepped into his place as Attorney-General. The next 
 year. Lord Hardwicke ceased to be Chancellor, and 
 Henley was at hand to receive the Great Seal from the 
 hands of Pitt. But it was stipulated that the Lord 
 Keeper should have the office without the peerage. 
 A third accident procured for him this dignity also. 
 Lord Ferrers shot his steward. Some one was required 
 to try him. No qualified person coveted the office. Sir 
 Robert Henley, now created Baron Henley of the Grange, 
 presided at the trial. The new Lord, whose inclinations
 
 280 CHARACTER OF LORD NORTHINGTON. [1760. 
 
 had ever leaned to low buffoonery, boisterous merriment, 
 and coarse jokes, was a little out of his element in an 
 office where a certain degree ol decorum seemed re- 
 quisite. " For the Lord High Steward," said Walpole, 
 " he neither had any dignity nor affected any. He 
 said at his own table t'other day, 'I will not send for 
 Garrick and learn to act a part.' " 
 
 The trial of Lord Ferrers took place in the spring of 
 1760. In the autumn of the same year, Henley's royal 
 patron had ascended the throne, and when a few months 
 later the Lord Keeper resigned the Great Seal into the 
 hands of George the Third, he received it back as Lord 
 Chancellor, Earl of Northington, and Lord Lieutenant 
 of Hampshire. The first advantage Lord Northington 
 took of the partiality Avhich his new Sovereign soon 
 evinced towards him, was to ask permission for the 
 discontinuance of the evening sittings of the Court of 
 Chancery, because, said he, " I wish to be allowed com- 
 fortably to finish my bottle of port after dinner," or 
 according to another version, " because at that hour I 
 am apt to be drunk." Whichever was the plea assigned, 
 the latter appears to have been the true one. " The 
 Chancellor," writes Walpole, in 1763, "is chosen Go- 
 vernor of St. BartholomcAVS. A smart gentleman, who 
 was sent Avith the white staff, carried it in the 
 evening, when the Chancellor happened to be drunk, 
 ' Well, Mr. Bartlemy,' said his Lordship, snuffling, ' what 
 have you to say?' The man, who had prepared a 
 formal harangue, was transported to have so fair an 
 opportunity of uttering it, and, with much dapper
 
 17(>(;.] CHARACTER OF LORD NORTHINGTON. 281 
 
 gesticulation, congratulated his Lordship on his health, 
 and the nation in enjoying so great abilities. The 
 Chancellor stopped him short, crying, ' It is a lie ! 
 I have neither health nor abilities. My bad health 
 has destroyed ray abilities.' " 
 
 To Bath, the scene of his former gaieties. Lord 
 Northington continued to resort, but health, not plea- 
 sure, was the cause of his visits. 
 
 " Time had played his usual tricks." 
 
 The handsome, briefless young barrister, who, with light 
 heart and light step, once enlivened the ball-rooms of 
 the city, was transformed into a wealthy, old, cynical 
 valetudinarian. It is in the latter capacity Anstey 
 has introduced him into his "Bath Guide." He there 
 figures as 
 
 " Lord Ringbone, who lay in the parlour below, 
 On account of the gout he had got in his toe." 
 
 Northington had now attained the highest dignity of 
 his profession, but the complaint above mentioned 
 greatly diminished its enjoyment, and marred the 
 pleasure he would otherwise have derived from those 
 profitable walks which the greatest of law functionaries 
 is in the habit of making, from the woolsack to the bar. 
 It was in one of these painful promenades that he was 
 overheard to say, " If I had known that these legs were 
 one day to carry a Lord Chancellor, I would have taken 
 more care of them when I was a lad." 
 
 Lord Northington was a good-looking man, of a florid 
 complexion. Though the expression of his countenance 
 was agreeable, his temper was haughty and imperious.
 
 282 CHARACTER OF LORD NORTIIINGTON. [l766. 
 
 and his manners were morose and overbearing. Yet 
 
 the surly deportment is supposed to have been rather 
 
 assumed than natural ; and he was considered a fellow 
 
 " Who, having been praised for bluntness, did affect 
 A saucy roughness ; and constrain the garb, 
 Quite from his nature. — " 
 
 One day he was obstructed on his way to the House 
 of Lords by a carman. " Did not your Lordship," 
 inquired some one, " show him the mace and strike him 
 with terror?" " No," swore the Chancellor, for an oath 
 was the usual preface to every sentence, " but 1 told 
 the rascal that if I had been in my private coach I 
 would have beaten him to a jelly." 
 
 To the Bill for repealing the Stamp Act was annexed 
 a declaration of the right of Parliament to lay imposts 
 on the Colonies of the British Empire. Mr. Pitt and 
 his adherents denied the competency of the legislature 
 to tax the Colonies at all, and Lord Campbell, in his 
 Life of Lord Camden, has recently re-affirmed the 
 opinion of Mr. Pitt. " Nothing," says the noble and 
 learned biographer of the Chancellors of England, 
 " could exceed the folly of accompanying the repeal of 
 the Stamp Act with the statutable declaration of the 
 abstract right to tax." Against so distinguished an 
 authority upon a question of jurisprudence and consti- 
 tutional history I should enter the lists with equal 
 diffidence and reluctance. But the laws of tourney in 
 certain cases permitted the weaker party to nominate 
 his champion, and I am fortunately enabled to shelter 
 my own opinion on the celebrated declaration, behind
 
 17(56.] RIGHT OF TAXING THE COLONIES. 283 
 
 tlie broad buckler of the most brilliant and learned of 
 recent historical writers. Upon the right of Parliament 
 Mr. Macaulay has thus forcibly delivered his judg- 
 ment : — 
 
 - " The opinion of the most judicious and temperate 
 statesmen of those times was, that the British Consti- 
 tution had set no limit whatever to the legislative 
 power of the British King, Lords, and Commons over 
 the whole British empire. Parliament they held was 
 legally competent to tax America, as Parliament was 
 legally competent to commit any other act of folly or 
 wickedness, to confiscate the property of all the mer- 
 chants in Lombard Street, or to attaint any man of 
 high treason, without examining witnesses against him, 
 or hearing him in his own defence. The most atrocious 
 act of confiscation or attainder is just as valid an act as 
 the Toleration Act or the Habeas Corpus Act. But 
 from acts of attainder and acts of confiscation lawgivers 
 are bound by every obligation of morality, systemati- 
 cally to refrain. Li the same manner ought the British 
 Legislature to refrain from taxing the American colo- 
 nies. The Stamp Act was indefensible, not because it 
 was beyond the constitutional competence of Parliament, 
 but because it was unjust and impolitic, sterile of 
 revenue, and fertile of discontents." * 
 
 But there is another reason, which will at least 
 
 redeem Lord Rockingham and his friends from the 
 
 charge of folly and inconsistency in accompanying the 
 
 abolition of a law with the affirmation of its principle. 
 
 * Macaulay 's Review of the Life of Chatham.
 
 284 DIFFERENCES OF OPINION [1766. 
 
 On the one hand, without such declaratory chiuse neither 
 the legislature nor the Sovereign would have passed 
 or ratified the Act. On the other, the Eockingham 
 party itself was by no means unanimous in its view 
 of the question at issue. Lord Hardwicke — and there 
 were many in the Upper House who coincided with 
 him — thought the concessions to America had gone 
 too far. 
 
 His Lordship, after stating that the Duke of Cum- 
 berland had offered him the Chairmanship) of the Board 
 of Trade in July 1765, and assigning some of the 
 reasons for declining, adds : " Neither had I any 
 intimation given me what plan they (the Ministers) 
 intended to pursue, or whether, as we had differed on 
 opposition points, it was not equally probable that we 
 might disagree when we met together in Administra- 
 tion; and this would, in fact, have happened, for I 
 never should have concurred in the tame despatches 
 which were sent to America from hence on the first 
 accounts of the Resolutions of the assemblies and the 
 tumults at New York and Boston." 
 
 In another part of his narrative Lord Hardwicke 
 says, " I was rather disgusted with the half confidences 
 which were made me during the course of the winter, 
 and with the little weight which was given to my 
 opinion, when it interfered with the plan which Lord 
 Rockingham and friends were previously determined to 
 follow in America and in mercantile affairs. I did not 
 take an active part in Parliament, though, from the 
 necessity of the times, and the universal clamour which
 
 17GG.] ON THE STAMP ACT. 285 
 
 the merchants and manufacturers had raised about the 
 Stamp Act, 1 concurred in the repeal of it." 
 
 Witli respect to the declaratory Act itself, his Lord- 
 ship remarks: — "It was principally owing to my 
 brother that the dignity and authority of the legislature 
 were kept up by the Bill for asserting the dependence 
 of the Colonies." 
 
 In the House of Commons, too, the Ministry would 
 have been deprived of a very able coadjutor had they 
 persisted in repealing the Act without asserting the abs- 
 tract right of the Legislature to enforce it. I allude 
 to Charles Yorke, Lord Hardwicke's brother, at this 
 time Attorney-General. 
 
 The licsolutions passed in the Cabinet on the subject 
 of the Declaratory Clause, and the subsequent corre- 
 spondence between Lord Rockingham and Mr. Charles 
 Yorke on the subject, will show, that, if the suggestions 
 of the latter had been adopted, the Act itself would 
 have been still more irritating to the feelings of the 
 colonists. The words in the text are the Resolutions 
 themselves, those within brackets the corrections of 
 Mr. Yorke. 
 
 I. 
 
 " Resolved, That it appears to this Committee that 
 the most dangerous tumults and insurrections have 
 been raised and carried on in several of the North 
 American colonies, in open defiance of the powers and 
 dignity of his Majesty's government there, and in mani- 
 fest violation of the laws and legislative authority of 
 this kingdom.
 
 286 RESOLUTIONS [l7G6. 
 
 11. 
 
 " Kesolved, That the said tumults have been greatly 
 [ unwarrantably ] encouraged and inflamed by sundry 
 [ leave out ] votes and resolutions passed in several 
 
 assemblies of the said provinces [directly contrary to law, 
 highly injurious to the honour of his Majesty and this House], 
 
 greatly derogatory to the honour and dignity of his 
 Majesty's Government, destructive of the legal and con- 
 stitutional dependency of the said Colonies on the Impe- 
 rial Crown and Parliament of Great Britain. 
 
 III. 
 " Kesolved, That an humble address be presented to 
 his Majesty, to desire that his Majesty would be pleased 
 to give directions to the Governors of the aforesaid 
 North American provinces [ . . . [His Governors in N^ 
 America,] to take the most effectual methods for disco- 
 vering and bringing to deserved punishment the au- 
 thors, abettors, and perpetrators [ and principal actors in] 
 of the said riots and insurrections. 
 
 IV. 
 
 " Eesolved, That a humble address be presented to 
 his Majesty to desire that his Majesty would be 
 [graciously] pleased to give orders to the Governors of 
 the several provinces where the above-mentioned [said] 
 riots and insurrections have happened, that they should 
 apply and recommend to the assemblies of the said 
 provinces to make proper recompense to those who have 
 suffered in their persons or properties in consequence 
 thereof.
 
 17G0.] ON THE STAMP ACT. 287 
 
 V. 
 
 " Resolved, That the Parliament of Great Britain 
 had, hath, and of a right ought to have, full power and 
 authority to make laws and statutes of sufficient force 
 and validity to bind the Colonies and people of America 
 in all cases whatsoever [as well in cases of Taxation, as in all 
 other cases whatsoever.] 
 
 THE MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHAM TO THE HON. CHARLES 
 
 YORKE. 
 
 "Jan. 25, 1766, Saturday evening. 
 
 " General Conavay having sent to me the proposed 
 Resolutions with some alterations which you have made, 
 I cannot help troubling you with my doubts upon some 
 of them. The Resolutions in general exceed in spirit 
 what the generality of our friends wish, but, in expecta- 
 tion that coming into them will pave the way for the 
 actual repeal of the Stamp A ct^ I think they will be 
 agreed to. In one of your alterations I dislike the 
 expression of undoubted rights, and am sure, upon con- 
 sideration how goading that word would be to a great 
 person in the House of Commons, it cannot be advisable 
 to put it in. 
 
 " The other alteration which I particularly object to, 
 is the insertion of ' taxation^ and I think I may say 
 that it is our firm resolution in the House of Lords (I 
 mean among ourselves) that that word must not be 
 inserted. I see more and more the difficulties that 
 surround us, and therefore feel the necessity of not 
 temporizing. Convinced as I am that the confusion at
 
 288 RESOLUTIONS [17G6. 
 
 home will be much too great (if the repeal is not 
 obtained) for us to have withstood, either as private or 
 public men, my opinion being entirely for repeal, I shall 
 certainly persist in that measure ; and though many in 
 the House of Commons may be against us, and particu- 
 larly some who have lately called themselves under the 
 denomination of Lord B.'s friends; yet I am persuaded 
 that the House will repeal the Stamp Act by a great 
 majority. If it does, we shall then show hoiv we stand 
 as Administration. If it does not, I wish no man so 
 great a curse as to desire him to be the person to take 
 Administration, and be obliged to enforce the Act. . . . 
 On all occasions ever your most affectionate friend, 
 
 " Rockingham." 
 
 In a letter of the same date as the foregoing, Mr. 
 Yorke writes — 
 
 " Since this letter was sealed up, your servant has 
 brought a letter from your Lordship. If Mr. Conway 
 and you have a mind in the third resolution to leave 
 out the word undoubted ; or even in the second resolu- 
 tion, the words directly contrary to law ; and think 
 that it will be a means of conciliating and softening 
 in this wild time, I am not tenacious of such correc- 
 tions, provided there is enough to express my real 
 meaning. 
 
 " To ' maintain the authority with dignity will assist 
 the repeal.^ " 
 
 A petition was presented on tlie 27th of January, by
 
 17fiO.] ON THE STAMP ACT, 289 
 
 Mr. Cooke, Member for Middlesex, from some of the 
 American provinces assembled in Congress, against the 
 Stamp Act. The " Parliamentary History " makes no 
 mention of the proceedings of this evening, yet the 
 debate was lively and the war of words fierce. It Avas, 
 moreover, on this evening that Edmund Burke made 
 his first speech in Parliament. Messrs. Jenkinson and 
 Dyson, both holding ofiice under Lord Rockingham, 
 as did Nugent and Ellis, belonged to the Court party, 
 who called the Congress a " dangerous federal union." 
 High words passed in the course of the evening be- 
 tween Pitt and Norton. The latter having said 
 that his blood was chilled by the gentleman's sound- 
 ing the trumpet of rebellion; the Great Commoner 
 replied, that " he would be glad to meet him in any 
 place, with the same opinions, when his blood was 
 warmer." 
 
 The following are a few of the remarks that called 
 forth Norton's declaration. 
 
 Mr. Pitt affirmed the petition to be innocent, dutiful, 
 and respectful. He painted the Americans as people 
 who, in an ill-fated hour, had left this country to fly 
 from the Star Chamber and High Commission Courts. 
 The desert smiled upon them in comparison of this 
 country. It was the evil genius of this country that 
 had riveted among them this union, now called 
 dangerous and federal. He would emphatically hear 
 the Colonies upon this their petition. " You have 
 broken the original compact if you have not a right 
 of taxation. The repeal of the Stamp Act was 
 
 VOL. I. U
 
 290 LORD HARDWICKE [l766. 
 
 an inferior consideration to the receiving this peti- 
 tion." * 
 
 The following comment upon Mr. Pitt's speech, from 
 a member of Lord Rockingham's Cabinet, is an answer 
 to those who condemn that statesman for introducing 
 the Declaratory Act. 
 
 THE EARL OF HARDWICKE TO THE HON. CHARLES YORKE. 
 " Dear Brother "St. James's Square, 28th Jan., 1766. 
 
 " I am very sorry you was not at the House yester- 
 day. The Great Commoner never laid himself so open, 
 never asserted such absurd and pernicious doctrines, 
 and richly deserved to have been called to the bar, or 
 sent to the Tower. The petition was from an illegal 
 congress, calling the right of Parliament in question ; 
 and on that account I could have wished you had been 
 there to bear your testimony against it. 
 
 " I presume you have seen the resolutions which are 
 intended for our House. Who is to be the mover I know 
 not. I proposed some words to the third resolution 
 about strengthening the King's hands, to preserve good 
 order, &c., in the Colony — very measured ones, in my 
 poor opinion — but which I think absolutely necessary. 
 Some are substituted, which I do not like so well, and 
 I flatter myself, you will approve mine. I heard such 
 stuff thrown out at the meeting by the Duke of New- 
 castle, and such a tame acquiescence from most of the 
 Lords, that I was obliged, in duty to the Crown, to tell 
 
 * Walpole's George the Third, ii. 270-1.
 
 176G.] TO THE HON. CHARLES YORKE. 291 
 
 them what I thought of the proceedings and principles 
 which prevail in North America. 
 
 " The question about the rigJit is in general terms — 
 all cases ivhatsoever. I presume it is the same in your 
 House. Tell me what you will do^ if taxation is pro- 
 posed to be inserted. The Ministers desire to flatter 
 North America, not to make it subordinate to this 
 country. They dread the idea of sending more force 
 there, which I think necessary to protect Government 
 from tumult, and to enable the Governor to execute 
 these resolutions. 
 
 " What will come out of all this, the Lord above 
 knows. I do not desire to trouble you with corre- 
 spondence ; but if it was the last time I ever heard from 
 you, I beg to know your opinion : — first, about being for 
 or against making particular mention of the power of 
 tawing; secondly, about inserting some words in rela- 
 tion to strengthening the King's hands; and thirdly, 
 how we shall get rid of, or modify, the late Acts, which 
 impose duties on North America. 
 
 " Eeading the papers will take up a day more, and 
 I suppose we shall not sit on the 30th of January. I 
 do not like Mr. Conway's letters to the Governors, but 
 those I shall not meddle with." 
 
 The marked intention of a large portion of the King's 
 household to avail themselves of his Majesty's permission 
 to vote against his Ministers, doubtless produced the 
 two letters which follow. 
 
 u <i
 
 292 DUKE OF NEWCASTLE [l766. 
 
 THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE TO THE MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHAM. 
 
 "Newcastle House, Jan. 31, 1766. 
 
 " My zeal for his Majesty's service, and for the 
 success of his administration, makes me take the liberty 
 to acquaint your Lordship that my Lord Albemarle, my 
 Lord Besboroagh, my Lord Grantham (who are now 
 here), as well as myself, are so much convinced of the 
 necessity of carrying the repeal of the Stamp Act, that 
 we fear, if that is not done, his Majesty's service in 
 Parliament may greatly suffer by it. 
 
 For that reason, we presume to give it as our opinion, 
 that your Lordship should lay the present state of this 
 question before the King, and humbly represent to his 
 Majesty, that if his Majesty will be graciously pleased 
 to signify to his Lords of the Bedchamber and his ser- 
 vants, at the time of his dressing, or after his levee, 
 that his Majesty wishes the repeal, and thinks it for 
 his service that it should be done, it will certainly be 
 carried without difficulty. But if such a declaration 
 be not made of his Majesty's own inclination, we are 
 very apprehensive that the many different kinds of 
 opposition will join to defeat it. The three Lords were 
 very earnest with me to send your Lordship this opinion, 
 which I said I was very ready to do, if I might write in 
 their name as well as my own; and this letter was 
 wrote in their presence, and approved by them. If 
 your Lordship should think that our humble opinion 
 should have any weight with his Majesty, we are very 
 willing that it sliould be submitted, with the utmost
 
 1766.] TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. 293 
 
 deference, to his Majesty's consideration. I myself, or 
 any of these Lords, have not the least doubt of his 
 Majesty's inclinations, but there is at present so much 
 industry in propagating everything that makes against 
 us, that his Majesty's own inclinations upon sucli an 
 occasion cannot be too well known. Your Lordship 
 Avill, I am sure, excuse this letter, which proceeds per- 
 liaps from an over zeal, which his Majesty's goodness 
 will pardon." 
 
 And in a second letter, of the same date, the Duke 
 writes, 
 
 " I SUOULD not have troubled your Lordship upon this 
 occasion, if my Lord Albemarle had not been under the 
 greatest apprehensions for the loss of the repeal, and 
 thought as the others did, that there then was an end 
 of this Administration. This arises from the notion 
 which now prevails, that Lord B. and all his friends 
 (and they are very numerous at the House of Lords) 
 will be all against us. Lideed, my Lord, nothing should 
 be omitted. I have done and will do everything in my 
 power. Pray send and talk to the Archbishop of York. 
 You may show the other letter to the King if you think 
 it necessary ; but that is left entirely to your Lordship. 
 You may acquaint the King you have such a letter ; but 
 don't let the King be angry with us lor our zeal." 
 
 Lord Rockingham, acting upon the suggestions con- 
 tained in the two last-quoted letters, represented to 
 the King that a Ministry undermined by the Household
 
 294 GEN. CONWAY TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. [l766. 
 
 could not much longer drag on a precarious existence ; 
 with how little effect his remonstrance was attended, 
 may he inferred from the fact that, on the same evening 
 the Government "carried a question by so small a 
 majority, that, according to Parliamentary divination, 
 it amounted to an overthrow." A Scotch petition had 
 been presented by Mr. Wedderburn, the consideration 
 of which the Ministers proposed to defer for six weeks. 
 They carried their point, but only by 148 to 139; 
 Lord Mountstuart, Lord Bute's eldest son, Mr. Dyson, a 
 Lord of Trade, Lord George Sackville, lately appointed 
 by Lord Rockingham to the lucrative post of Vice-Trea- 
 surer of Ireland, Lord Strange, Chancellor of the Duchy 
 of Lancaster, and several Grooms of the Bedchamber, 
 voted with the minority. 
 
 General Conway, who reported the result of this 
 division to the King, forwarded his Majesty's answer 
 to Lord Rockingham, with the following note from 
 himself. 
 
 " Mt Lord, " B. House, Saturday (Feb. 1st, 1766). 
 
 " I wrote a short account of what passed yesterday, 
 and sent a list of the voters^ which you saw, and just 
 said I thought the buzz of some plan of a separation 
 from his Majesty's servants made it more remarked. 
 Does the enclosed answer give you any light or opinion? 
 This for yourself and the Duke of Grafton. 
 
 " Your Lordship's, 
 
 " Most sincerely, 
 
 " H. S. C."
 
 1766. J THE KING TO GENERAL CONWAY. 295 
 
 Sir John Anstruther, one of the gentlemen alluded 
 to in the first paragraph of the following letter, sat in 
 Parliament for Crail, and was hereditary carver to the 
 King in Scotland. 
 
 " Necessity and Anstruther are like one another; 
 Necessity has no law, no more has Anstruther." 
 
 I know not for what place Mr. Alexander was a 
 member. 
 
 the king to the right hon. henry seymour conway. 
 
 " Lieut.-General Conway, 
 
 " I have received your account of yesterday's division 
 on the Scotch petition of an undue election. By what 
 Lord Rockingham dropped to me, that both were good 
 men, I did not know that Administration meant, as 
 such, to be active on this occasion. 
 
 " I am sorry any of the 15th Regiment of Dragoons 
 have taken to robbing on the highway, and when 
 brought to conviction, shall be firmly of opinion that 
 the law must take its course ; for soldiers have a main- 
 tenance, and therefore have no plea of distress. 
 
 " 26 r. M." 
 
 " The situation of Ministers," says Walpole, " became 
 every day more irksome and precarious." 
 
 " Perhaps," writes Lord Chesterfield, on the 10th of 
 February, " you expect from me a particular account of 
 the present state of affairs. It varies, not only daily, 
 but hourly. Most people think, and I among the rest,
 
 296 THE KING [1706. 
 
 that the date of the present Ministers is pretty nearly 
 out; but how soon we are to have a new style, God 
 knows. This, however, is certain, that the Ministers 
 had a contested election in the House of Commons, and 
 got it but by eleven votes; too small a minority to 
 carry anything." 
 
 It appears to be in reference to this election that 
 the following; letter was written. 
 
 the king to the marquis of rockingham. 
 
 " Lord Rockingham, 
 
 " Your attention in sending me this evening the 
 account of the success of the Rochester election, is very 
 commendable. A steady perseverance, unattended by 
 heat, will overturn all oppositions, even in Parlia- 
 ment. 
 
 " 5 min. past 9, p. m. (2nd of February.)" 
 
 "The next day," writes Chesterfield, "they (the 
 Ministers) lost a question in the House of Lords, by 
 three. The question in the House of Lords was, to 
 enforce the execution of the Stamp Act vi et armis. 
 The opposition carried the question against the Govern- 
 ment by sixty-three to sixty." 
 
 The nature of the Minister's remonstrance to the 
 King, on this last act of hostility, may be inferred by 
 his Majesty's reply.
 
 17(J0.J TO LORD ROCKINGUAM. 297 
 
 " Lord Rockingham, 
 
 " I have received your resolution, of standing firmly 
 by the fate of the American question, which will cer- 
 tainly direct my language to the Chancellor. 
 
 "10 min. past 11, p. m." 
 
 The following day, Lord Hardwicke writes to Mr. 
 Yorke : — 
 
 " Dear Brother "St. James's Square, Feb. 3, 17G6. 
 
 " There is certainly a micmac at Court. What it 
 will end in, God knows. Lord Eockingham was with 
 the King two hours last night. Lord Chancellor has 
 gone to the Queen's Palace, as his Majesty does not 
 appear in public. The talk is of a new Administra- 
 tion." 
 
 One of the modes which the Court adopted to bring 
 Ministers into a state of subjection, was to enter into a 
 pretended negociation with the leaders of opposition. 
 Mr. Grenville, while at the helm of aifairs, was fre- 
 quently a victim of these " make believes." AValpole 
 mentions that a like system was set in operation against 
 Lord Rockingham. This assertion derives some colour 
 from the following letter, for it is hardly supposed that 
 two such political time-servers as the lawyers therein 
 mentioned would have acted against the King's public 
 servants, without his sanction.
 
 298 LORD ALBEMARLE TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. [l760. 
 
 THE EARL OF ALBEMARLE TO THE MARQUIS OF 
 ROCKINGHAM.* 
 
 " The King should be informed that Mr. Norton and 
 Mr. Wedderburn are treating with Mr. Grenville ; that 
 the plan of opposition is to wait the decision of the 
 repeal, to endeavour in the meantime to lessen the 
 strength of the Administration by frequent divisions, 
 depending upon Lord Bute and many of his Majesty's 
 servants; that if the Repeal is not carried, they know 
 the Ministers must resign, and that the King must call 
 upon them, having no others to go to, Avhen they will 
 make their own terms, harder than any that have ever 
 yet been made ; and his Majesty has already had a 
 specimen of their mercy; if there was any public mark 
 of his Majesty's resolution to support his Ministers on 
 the Repeal, I am sure it would have a very surprising 
 effect, from conversations that I have had. 
 " I have the honour to be, &c., 
 
 " Albemarle." 
 
 " Friday, past 1 o'clock." 
 
 The 7th of February was the day on which the oppo- 
 nents of the Stamp Act resolved to try their strength. 
 General Conway having called the attention of the 
 House of Commons to the calamitous condition of 
 America, Mr. Grenville moved an address to the King 
 to enforce the laws. After a stormy debate, Grenville's 
 
 * Endorsed " February, 1 76G. Lord Albemarle relating to the 
 Opposition."
 
 1766] LORD ROCKINGHAM TO THE KING. 299 
 
 motion was rejected by 274 to 134; the minority com- 
 prising Lord Bute's friends, all the Scotch, all the 
 Tories, and nearly a dozen of the King's household. 
 
 " The Ministers," says Walpole, " however triumph 
 ant, were, with reason, disgusted at the notorious 
 treachery of the Court, and remonstrated to the King 
 on the behaviour of his servants."* 
 
 Lord Rockingham's letter to the King was as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 " Sir, 
 
 " I humbly presume to trouble your Majesty on the 
 event of last night in the Commons. 
 
 " The appearances there fully justify what I have 
 presumed to mention to your Majesty in some late con- 
 versations, and make it necessary for me, both as a 
 faithful and in truth most aifectionate servant, to hope 
 that your Majesty will be graciously pleased to allow 
 me to attend your Majesty at any time in the course of 
 this day, that I may open to your Majesty the senti- 
 ments and opinions of a heart, which I will assert has 
 no motive but its aifection and duty to your Majesty, 
 and its anxiety for the welfare of this country in the 
 present critical situation." 
 
 For the result of this interview we must again look 
 to Walpole : " Evasions and professions were all the 
 replies ; but no alteration in consequence.f 
 
 * Walpole's George the Third, ii. 288. 
 t Ibid.
 
 300 CORRESPONDENCE ON [1706. 
 
 On the 10th of Februcary, " Lord Strange, one of the 
 placemen who opposed the repeal of the Stamp Act, hav- 
 ing occasion to go in to the King, on some affair of his 
 office, the Duchy of Lancaster, the King said he heard 
 it was reported in the world that he (the King) was for 
 the repeal of that Act. Lord Strange replied, that idea 
 did not only prevail, but that his Majesty's Ministers 
 did all that lay in their power to encourage that belief; 
 and that their great majority had been entirely owing 
 to their having made use of his Majesty's name. Lord 
 Strange no sooner left the closet than he made full 
 use of the authority he had received, and trumpeted 
 all over the town the conversation he had had with 
 the King." * 
 
 JOHN OFFLEY,! ESQ., TO THE MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHAM. 
 
 " My Lord "Tuesday, February Uth, 17C6. 
 
 " I beg your pardon for troubling you with this note. 
 I did design to have waited upon you this morning, to 
 have told you of the report that was spread last night 
 as a certain truth, and gave great uneasiness to all the 
 well-wishers of the present Administration. It was, 
 that Lord Strange had yesterday morning an audience 
 of the King, who assured him he did not wish for the 
 repeal of the Stamp Act, only wished that it might 
 
 * Walpole's George the Third, ii. 288-9, — see also Belsham's His- 
 tory of Great Britain, v. 177. Both writers have given different ver- 
 sions of this occurrence, but neither of them is quite correct in all 
 the details. 
 
 f Member for Oxford.
 
 1700.] THE REPEAL OF THE STAMP ACT. 301 
 
 be altered. My reason for giving you this trouble is 
 that, if it is not true, it may be contradicted, as it 
 gives great uneasiness to your friends and great spirits 
 to your enemies." 
 
 Among Lord Eockingham's papers are the three fol- 
 lowing distinct disavowals, in the Koyal handwriting, of 
 the language attributed. It may, I think, be inferred, 
 that they were obtained at three several audiences. 
 That marked No. III. is on a small piece of paper, 
 apparently part of the cover of a letter, and would 
 seem as if the Minister had determined not to quit 
 the Royal presence until he had secured " the word of 
 a King." 
 
 THREE PAPERS IN THE KINO'S HANDWRITING. 
 
 I. 
 
 "That Lord Rockingham was, on Friday, allowed 
 by his Majesty to say, that his Majesty was for the 
 repeal. The conversation having only been for that 
 or enforcing." 
 
 II. 
 
 " Lord Rockingham's question was, whether he was 
 for enforcing the Stamp Act, or for the repeal. The 
 King was clear, that repeal was preferable to enforcing, 
 and permitted Lord Rockingham to declare that as his 
 opinion."
 
 302 CORRESPONDENCE ON [1766. 
 
 III. 
 
 " Lord Eockingham, 
 
 " I desire you would tell Lord Strange, that I am 
 now, and have been heretofore, for modification ; but 
 that when many Avere for enforcing, I was then for 
 a repeal of the Stamp Act." 
 
 THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE TO THE MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHAM. 
 
 "Claremont, February lltli, 1766. 
 
 " I AM very much obliged to you for your kind letter. 
 Nothing could be properer than what you represented 
 to the King, and / Jiope it will have its eifect. This 
 day and to-morrow, at the levee, will be the trial. 
 
 " From what your Lordship says, as well as from 
 some circumstances I learnt yesterday, I am convinced 
 that the pressing the repeal ought to be the sole object 
 at present, and for that purpose I hope nothing will be 
 neglected. I firmly believe the House of Commons will 
 go on well, but we must not discourage them by losing 
 any more questions in the House of Lords, and, there- 
 fore, we must pick up all we can get.'" I think the 
 first division of sixty to sixty-three, is the rule we 
 should go by, though your Lordship made very good 
 use of the last with the King." 
 
 Lord Eockingham appears to have been so thoroughly 
 disgusted with the treacherous conduct of the Court, as 
 to contemplate an immediate resignation, 
 
 * The Stamp Repeal Bill was read for the first time on the follow- 
 ing day.
 
 17t>G.] THE REPEAL ON THE STAMP ACT. 303 
 
 THE EARL OF DARTMOUTH * TO THE MARQUIS OF 
 
 ROCKINGHAM. 
 
 " Sunday Evening (Feb. 12, 1766). 
 
 " I HAVE thought of nothing but what you told me 
 last night, since I saw you, and am fully persuaded 
 that you ought, by all means, to stand it out to the 
 last moment, and, for the sake of your country, to cling 
 (to office) with the same tenacity that others would use 
 for the sake of themselves. The case is not yet des- 
 perate, and while there is the least shadow of hope of 
 doing good, I would on no account give up the game 
 to those who will, undoubtedly, do mischief. The Act 
 once repealed, I shall heartily congratulate your Lord- 
 ship upon a release from your fatigues. Your successors 
 may then be left to enjoy the sweets of an honourable 
 coalition, and hug themselves in the possession of em- 
 ployment, which nothing but concern for the public 
 good could make it worth your while to hold. It will 
 be some time before they can contrive to get us into 
 such another scrape; when they do, it will be time 
 enough to call upon Yourself and Co. to deliver us 
 from it." 
 
 In addition to the numerous obstacles that lay in the 
 path of Ministers, in their endeavours to restore tran- 
 quillity to America, was the turbulent spirit of the 
 American Colonists themselves. The following paper 
 on this subject, entitled " Considerations on the Repeal 
 
 * See ante page 237.
 
 304 PAPER ON STAMP ACT. [1766. 
 
 of the Stamp, and recommending a suitable behaviour 
 to the Americans on that occasion," was drawn up by 
 Sir George Savile. 
 
 " The constant argument against the Eepeal has 
 been that, in case it should take place, the vote of 
 Right will be waste paper ; we shall ' strut in mock 
 majesty,' and the Colonies will understand very well 
 that what is pretended to be adopted, on mere com- 
 mercial principles of expedience, is really yielded 
 through fear, and amounts to a tacit but effectual 
 surrender of our right, or, at least, a tacit compact 
 that we will never use it. 
 
 " It has struck me long since, that this would be the 
 line of argument, and every debate and every question 
 from opposition, as to this point, confirms me in this 
 opinion, and in a persuasion how very material it is, 
 that the event should not support, or even seem to 
 support, their arguments. 
 
 " The event will justify those arguments in the 
 strongest manner, if the Colonies should triumph on the 
 Repeal, and affect to seize the yielding of Parliament as 
 a point gained over parliamentary authority. The 
 Opposition would immediately throw in your teeth : — 
 ' See your work ; it is as we said ; it is but too well 
 proved what use the Colonies make of your weak and 
 tiinid measures.^ 
 
 " On the contrary, if duty, submission, and gratitude 
 be the return made by the Colonies, then, ' We are 
 in the right,'' we may say. ' Is it not as we said f See
 
 17GG.] PAPER ON STAMP ACT. 805 
 
 the Colonies regained to this country by our modera- 
 tion ; regained with their loyalty, thevr affection, and their 
 trade' 
 
 " I need not say how extremely preferable the latter 
 supposition is to the first. How much more desirable 
 for this country and for the Colonies ! Might they not 
 be reasoned with thus : — 
 
 " You must be sensible what friends you have had in 
 the present Ministry, and what pains they have taken 
 to serve you. It is justice likewise to them to inform 
 you what difficulties they have encountered in your 
 cause, and from whence those difficulties have mainly 
 arisen. You should know, that the great obstacle in 
 this way has been unhappily thrown in by yourselves. 
 I mean the intemperate proceedings of various ranks of 
 people on your side the water, and that the difficulties 
 of the repeal would have been nothing, if you had not 
 by your violence in word and action awakened the 
 honour of Parliament, and thereby involved every 
 friend of the repeal in the imputation of betraying the 
 dignity of Parliament. This is so true, that the Act 
 would certainly not have been repealed if men's minds 
 had not been in some measure satisfied with the Decla- 
 ration of Right. If, therefore, you would make the 
 proper return to your country, if you have a mind to 
 do credit to your friends, and strengthen the hands of 
 your advocates, hasten to express your filial duty and 
 gratitude to your parent country. Then will those who 
 have been (and while they have the power will be) 
 your friends have reason to plume themselves on the 
 
 VOL. I. X
 
 o 
 
 OG CHARACTER OF JEREMIAH DYSON. [17G6. 
 
 restoration of peace to the colonies, union, trade, and 
 reciprocal advantages to them and to us. 
 
 " But continue your violent measures, triumph in 
 the point you have gained ; talk of it as a victory ; 
 say the Parliament have yielded up the right, if you 
 have a mind to give your enemies here a complete 
 triumph. If you have a mind your friends should 
 lose the power to serve you, and if you have a mind 
 your two masters should be restored, you have your 
 choice. 
 
 " This is the idea which I think might be instilled 
 and cultivated in the colonies by merchants to their 
 correspondents ; and I think, in our present situation, a 
 very great deal depends on its being done universally 
 and immediately." 
 
 Among the most active opponents of the repeal of 
 the Stamp Act was Mr. Jeremiah Dyson, member for 
 Great Yarmouth, and one of the Lords of Trade. He 
 was one of those parasitical persons who serve govern- 
 ments a little, and disgrace them much. He was by 
 /"^th a tailor, by education a Dissenter, and, from 
 j interest or vanity, in his earlier years a Republican. 
 ( But he was not a person whose conscience at any time 
 ( stood in the way of his preferment, and his republi- 
 canism speedily yielded to more profitable investments 
 \ in politics. He was a quick, shrewd man, with a cool 
 head and a prompt tongue, and an atrabilious tempera- 
 ment, that made him impatient of repose and obscurity. 
 He entered Parliament Avith a character for holding 
 
 /
 
 17GG.] CHARACTER OF JEREMIAH DYSON. 307 
 
 anti-monarchical opinions, although he was at the time 
 " secretly sold to Lord Bute." For some time he was 
 supposed to be a staunch supporter of George Gren- 
 ville, but when the Grenvillian horizon became over- 
 cast, Jeremiali tacked to windward. Shortly after this 
 desertion, having assumed a bag instead of a ^^<?-wig, 
 Lord Gower aptly remarked, " It was because no tie 
 would hold him." 
 
 Whatever party he espoused, Dyson's habits of 
 business, skill in parliamentary forms, specious demean- 
 our and general courtesy, rendered him a serviceable 
 adjunct ; nor, though he possessed neither fancy nor 
 eloquence, was he by any means contemptible as a 
 speaker and pamphleteer. But the best of his good 
 gifts was his accommodating conscience. He was a ?| 
 ready-made " King's friend," even before he attracted f\ 
 the royal notice. 
 
 George the Third was not a King John, nor was 
 Dyson a Hubert. But he was not the less an apt 
 instrument in the hands of a Sovereign who sought to 
 govern a kingdom as an attorney manages an election, 
 by the influence of partisans and the division of oppo- 
 nents. He had risen rapidly in the favour of Lord 
 Bute. For several years he was principal clerk in the 
 House of Commons. He became afterwards joint Secre- 
 tary of the Treasury, and eventually Cofferer of the 
 Household. 
 
 Li 1766 Lord Bute's royal pupil became political 
 sponsor for Jeremiah's good behaviour as a member of 
 the Kockingham Ministry. Reluctantly did the Pre- 
 
 X 2
 
 808 CHARACTER OF JEREMIAH DYSON. [I7(i0. 
 
 mier accept his services ; miicli he laboured to cashier 
 him. But the King knew his worth too well. His 
 Majesty preferred getting rid of Lord Rockingham to 
 dismissing Jeremiah. 
 
 Such accomplishments could not fail to attract notice 
 both from friends and enemies, and while the former 
 rewarded, the latter satirized the compliances of Dyson. 
 In the farce of the " Padlock" Do7i Lorenzo asks his 
 black servant, Mungo, whether "he can be honest?" 
 Mmigo rejoins, "What you give me, massa?" This 
 bustling and unscrupulous actor of all work on the 
 political stage of this period was nicknamed Mungo by 
 Colonel Barr6. The appellation stuck to him ; and 
 many of the pamphlets which were called forth by the 
 question of Wilkes's claim to sit in Parliament bore 
 such titles as the following : " Mungo on the Use of 
 Quotations;" " Mungo's Case Considered," &c. It is 
 scarcely necessary to add that in this controversy Dyson 
 advocated with his pen the views of the Court. 
 
 " Who," said Flood, in the Irish House of Commons 
 in November 1771, "does not know Jeremiah Dyson, 
 Esq.? We know little of him, indeed, otherwise than 
 by his name on the Pension List. There are others 
 who know him by his actions. This is he who is endued 
 with those happy talents that he has served every admi- 
 nistration, and served every one Avith equal success— a 
 civil, pliable, good-natured gentleman who will do what 
 you will, and say what you please — for payment." 
 v^ The letter which follows has reference to the second 
 of seven resolutions which General Conway laid before 
 
 /.
 
 1706] MR. COOPER TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. 309 
 
 the Iluiise of Coniiiious on the 24th of February, rela- 
 tive to the Bill to repeal the Stamp Act. 
 
 MR. GREY COOPER "'■ TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. 
 
 " My Lord, " 6 o'clock. 
 
 " Upon the second resolution being moved by Mr. Se- 
 cretary Conway, Mr. Dyson made a motion for amend- 
 ment of it, by adding the words, wlierehy the execution of 
 the Stamj) Act has been defeated. Mr. Pitt getting up to 
 oppose this amendment he said, he was for the general 
 words moved by the Eight Hon. Gentleman (Conway) 
 because he thought them wise, judicious, temperate, and 
 hrm; and he wished the prudence which dictated the 
 resolution might find the approbation it deserved from 
 the nation, and that it might find the way into the heart 
 of the King. He could not be more explicit in his good- 
 will to administration, and his resolution to support 
 them through this great measure. Mr. Grenville has 
 been obliged to advise Mr. Dyson to withdraw his motion 
 just as I was upon my legs to oppose it; but we cannot 
 be upon better ground. Mr. Burke has spoke very well 
 
 * Mr., afterwards Sir Grey, Cooper, was Secretary of the Treasury. 
 In 1790, he was made a Privy Councillor. Cooper was a dull but 
 useful speaker. He was also the author of several pamphlets. Lloyd, 
 a private Secretary of Mr. Grenville, having, in 1 765, written a small 
 tract, entitled " An Honest ]\Ian's Reasons for declining to take any 
 part in the New Administration," Cooper wrote in answer, " A Pair 
 of Spectacles for Short-sighted Politicians," also, " The IMerits of the 
 New Administration fairly stated." In this last, he argues the per- 
 manency of the Rockingham Ministry, which did not live a year 
 but he continued in office till 1782.
 
 310 LORD HARDWICKE TO HON. C. YORKE. [l76G. 
 
 in answer to Mr. Grenville. I never was in better 
 spirits. If this night be well managed everything yet 
 may be more solid than it was before the mine of yester- 
 day was sprung. "* Mr. Pitt has taken the alarm, both 
 he and Colonel Barre have declared their most unre- 
 served concurrence with your Lordship and your friends. 
 " I am, with the utmost respect, 
 " Your Lordship's most devoted servant, 
 
 " Grey Cooper/' 
 
 the earl of hardwicke to the hon. charles yorke. 
 
 " Dear Brother, "February 24th, 1766. 
 
 "I send you a very sensible letter of Sir Joseph's; 
 you will see the opinion which foreigners entertain of 
 the Great Commoner, and of our conduct at home, not 
 that it alters my opinion about the repeal of the Stamp 
 Act, as affairs are circumstanced here, the pressure of 
 which foreigners cannot feel. I have writ Sir Joseph 
 an account of the strange way in which the last Ministry 
 had conducted their own scheme by leaving it to shift 
 for itself with all the notices they had of the ill-humour 
 rising in North America. It is neither to be answered, 
 nor vindicated. Pray consider, if the repeal of this ill- 
 fated Bill should not be attended with addresses from 
 Parliament to the Crown to require of the assemblies to 
 raise the money for paying the troops kept there for 
 their security. I am sure it ought to be done, whenever 
 
 * I know not what neio mine was sprung on the 23rd of Fe- 
 bruary.
 
 1766.] OVERTURES TO PITT. 311 
 
 we have the good fortune to liave a settled Administra- 
 tion, else I would recall the troops^ which yet I think a 
 very unwise measure in other respects. After all that 
 passed in the summer, the intercourse with you, the 
 offer to me, I think it strange the King has never 
 wished to know at least your opinion^ when he has had 
 that of lialf the blockheads in and out of his service. 
 Surely it is the low craft of Leicester House to keep all 
 who have sense and integrity from the purlieus of the 
 Palace." 
 
 The fall of the Ministry was now daily expected. It 
 was said of them — " They were dead, and only lying in 
 state; and that Charles Townshend (who never spoke 
 for them) was one of the mutes." As the repeal of the 
 Stamp Act, although it had passed the Commons, had 
 yet to run the gauntlet in the Lords, Lord Rockingham, 
 regardless of all personal considerations, made one more 
 attempt to gain the support of Mr. Pitt, and accord- 
 ingly he wrote as follows towards the end of February 
 to that statesman's legal adviser and personal friend, 
 Mr. Thomas Nuthall : '" 
 
 " By taking the liberty to trouble you, I may have 
 ventured beyond prudence, but not beyond the dictates 
 
 * On the formation of his Government, Lord Rockingham, with a 
 view of conciliating Mr. Pitt, made ]\Ir. Nuthall Solicitor to the 
 Treasury. In announcing the appointment to Mr. Pitt, Nuthall 
 declares himself very sensible that the friendship with which the Great 
 Commoner had honoiu'ed him, procured to him the promotion, and 
 adds, " therefore I look up to you as I have always done, and always
 
 312 OVERTURES TO PITT. [l766. 
 
 of my own mind, whose only object ought to be, and I 
 will say is, the most effectual means of obtaining such 
 solidity in government as may lead to the advantage of 
 my country, and the happiness of the King. 
 
 " The time is critical. Might I wish to know whether 
 Mr. Pitt sees the possibility of his coming and putting 
 himself at the head of the present Administration? I 
 can say with very sufficient grounds that Mr. Pitt has 
 only to signify his idea." 
 
 On the 28th of February, Mr. Nuthall writes in reply 
 — " Mr. Pitt is under an impossibility of conferring 
 upon the matter of administration without his Majesty's 
 commands." 
 
 It would seem, from Mr. Pitt's letter to Lord Shel- 
 burne, as if there was already some understanding be- 
 tween him and the King. 
 
 " There is one man who will very shortly set out for 
 Bath after the American affair is over. 
 
 " In one word, my dear Lord, I shall never set my 
 
 will do, as my great benefactor and patron." In March, 1775, Mr. 
 Nuthall, on returning from Bath, was attacked on Hounslow Heath 
 by a highwayman, who, on his demands not being complied with, 
 fired into the carriage. Mr. Nuthall returned the highwayman's fire 
 and, it was supposed, wounded him severely. When the carriage 
 arrived at the inn at Hounslow, Nuthall wrote a description of the 
 man to Sir John Fielding, but he had scarcely closed his letter when 
 he expired. This was not his first encounter with robbers; some 
 years before, he wounded some one who attacked him, so severely that 
 the fellow died of his wounds before he could be brought to trial. An 
 amusing account, by Nuthall, of Mr. Pitt's reception in the City, in 
 17G1, will be found in the Chatham Correspondence, ii. 166.
 
 1706.] LORD IIARDWICKE TO HON. C. YORKE. 313 
 
 foot in the closet, but in the hope of rendering the 
 King's personal situation not unhappy, as well as his 
 business not unprosperous." * 
 
 The bill for the repeal of the Stamp Act was carried 
 up to the Lords, on the 4th of March, by a large body 
 of the House of Commons, and met, says George Onslow, 
 " with not quite so civil a reception as such a bill, so 
 carried in our House, and so conveyed as it was, by a 
 hundred and fifty members to the other House, did, in 
 my opinion, deserve." 
 
 Scanty as is the allusion in the following letter to the 
 debate which ensued upon the introduction of the Repeal 
 Bill in the Upper House, it contains all that is at 
 present known of the proceedings of that day. 
 
 THE EARL OF HARDWICKE TO THE HON. CHARLES YORKE. 
 
 " Dear Brother, " St. James's Square, March 8, 1766. 
 
 " I presume you have had an account of what passed 
 yesterday at the House of Lords. Shall we amend or 
 not amend ? Your neighbourf spoke very well ; Lord 
 Camden rather better than before, and pleased the 
 lovers of American liberty. Tom TilburyJ said nothing, 
 because, as Lord C — d§ said this morning, he could not 
 find out a third opinion. 
 
 * Chatham Correspondence, iii. 12. 
 
 + Lord Hardwicke probably meant Lord Mansfield, whose seat of 
 Kenwood is in tliat immediate neighbourhood of Highgate^ where Mr. 
 Yorke resided. 
 
 I The nick-name of Lord Northington. 
 
 § Probably Lord Chesterfield.
 
 314 THE KING TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. [1766. 
 
 " We are rather exercising our wits than really 
 serving the public. Our friend, Lord Egmont, was 
 recondite, but beyond me. Parliament had the right, 
 but if we exercised it, we deprived the Colonies of a 
 privilege against abuse. 
 
 "P.S. — Have you seen the New York Gazette Extra- 
 ordinary? Lord Mansfield says it is Justice Living- 
 ston's. It is very strong for independency." 
 
 The Bill encountered two divisions in its progress 
 through the Lords. On the first, 105 voted for the 
 repeal and 71 against it; on the second, the numbers 
 were, 275 to 167; 33 Lords entering their protest 
 against it on the last of these occasions. The King 
 writes to the Ministers the following letter. 
 
 " Lord Rockingham, 
 
 " I am glad the American affair has ended this day 
 without any great altercation. If the Opposition have 
 made a protest, I desire I may directly receive a copy 
 of it." 
 
 On the 18th of March, the Repeal of the Stamp Act, 
 
 ^ ^ the subject of warm and acrimonious debates, both in 
 
 1^ '^' the Lords and Commons, "received the royal assent; 
 
 ■ kJA :Ji> an event," says Burke, " that caused more universal joy 
 
 > ^ y throughout the British dominions than perhaps any other 
 
 \(r y/^ that can be remembered."
 
 176G.1 HUME AND ROUSSEAU. 315 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 HUME AND ROtJSSEATT. THE MILITIA BILL. — CHARACTER OF MR. TRE- 
 
 COTniCK. DINNER IN CELEBRATION OF STAMP ACT REPEAL. — MIS- 
 TRUST OF GOVERNMENT IN CONTINENTAL STATES. RESOLUTIONS ON 
 
 GENERAL WARRANTS. RESIGNATION OF DUKE OF GRAFTON. EX- 
 TRACTS FROM LORD HARDWICKE's '* MEMORIALL." CHARACTER OF 
 
 DUKE OF RICHMOND, AND OF LORDS NORTH AND EGMONT. DUKE 
 
 OF Richmond's journal. — lord bute's suspected interference 
 
 IN PUBLIC affairs. PITT APPOINTED MINISTER. DISMISSAL OF 
 
 THE ROCKINGHAM MINISTRY. 
 
 After three years' residence in Paris, David Hume, 
 the historian, arrived in England. He wenTtcTTi'ance a 
 plain, unaffected Scotchman. He came back with the 
 airs and feelings of a Frenchman. The incense he re- 
 ceived had been too much for his philosophy. Passing 
 his time in courts and coteries, he mistook adulation for 
 affection, and on his return home used to launch out in 
 encomiums on " the gallant nation so famous for its 
 loyalty," contrasting their peaceable demeanour with 
 the turbulence of his own countrymen. 
 
 This Gallo-mania induced him to bring with him 
 Jean Jacque s llousseau . They arrived in England in 
 January 1766. Perhaps the characters of no two per- 
 sons ever formed so strong a contrast as Rousseau and 
 Hume. They were the Jean qui pleure and the Jean qui 
 rit. The Frenchman being the crying, the Englishman,
 
 316 HUME AND ROUSSEAU. [l766. 
 
 the laughing philosopher. The one violent, extrava- 
 gant, melancholy, unsociable— the other calm, moderate, 
 cheerful, and fond of society. The motive of importing 
 this very troublesome guest was doubtless a natural kind- 
 ness of disposition, moved perhaps with a little national 
 vanity. In the month of ]\Iarch, Kousseau was, by the 
 exertions of Hume, settled at Wooton, in Derbyshire, the 
 seat of Mr. Davenport of Davenport. The historian 
 was unremitting in his attentions to " the great profes- 
 sor and founder of the philosophy of vamty 'in Eng- 
 lanlT' as Burke calls him.'"' '' I and my friends," said 
 Hume, "gave way to all his caprices, excused all his 
 singularities, and indulged him in all his humours." 
 While Eousseau was thus the recipient of so much real 
 kindness, his ill-regulated mind made him believe that 
 Hume had only enticed him to England to injure his 
 reputation, and to degrade him by his favours : but the 
 historian's exertions did not stop there. Through the 
 medium of General Conway and General Graeme, the 
 Queen's Treasurer, he procured him a pension of a hun- 
 dred pounds a-year. 
 
 The following letter, the original of which is in Lord 
 Fitzwilliam's possession, refers to this transaction. 
 
 "April 5 (1766). 
 
 " Mr. Hume presents his respects to General Conway. 
 He cannot forbear thanking him, in the name of all 
 that is ingenious in Europe, for the favours he has con- 
 ferred on Monsieur Rousseau. He will keep it a secret, 
 
 * See Burke On the French Revolution.
 
 170(5.] HUME AND ROUSSEAU. 317 
 
 though one of the most laudable actions of the world. 
 
 He has informed ]\Ionsieur llousseau, who, as he has the 
 
 greatest sensibility imaginable, must feel the proper 
 
 gratitude for the obliging manner in which he is treated. 
 
 " Mr. Hume desires to know how that pension is to 
 
 be paid ; whether it is to pass through the Treasury, or 
 
 is to be paid secretly from the Privy Purse. If the 
 
 former is the case, he apprehends that M. Rousseau 
 
 must write to the Secretary of the Treasury, desiring 
 
 him to pay the money to some banker whom he shall 
 
 appoint. If the latter, he must choose some friend 
 
 into whose hands it must be secretly paid. 
 " 5th of April." 
 
 Unfortunately at this very moment appeared Wal- 
 pole's famous letter, which, purporting to be from the 
 King of Prussia, quizzed most unmercifully Rousseau's 
 mania of fancying himself persecuted by the whole 
 Avorld. " If," the philosopher King is made to say, " If 
 you persist in perplexing your brains to find out new 
 misfortunes, choose such as you like best; I am a King 
 and can make you as miserable as you can wish ; at the 
 same time, I Avill engage to do what your enemies never 
 will, I will cease to persecute you, when you are no 
 longer vain of persecution."'-^ 
 
 The subject of the letter believing his host to be the 
 
 * Walpole's letter was an imitation of an anonymous epistle to 
 Rousseau, in which the foibles of the Genevese were handled with 
 caustic pleasantry. Neither the object of the satire, nor any one 
 else, could doubt that its author was Voltaire.
 
 318 LORD ROCKINGHAM TO HON, C YORKE. [1700. 
 
 author, a violent quarrel ensued, and the Englishman 
 and Frenchman became henceforth bitter enemies. 
 
 Walpole, writing of the events of the month April, 
 says, "Mr. Pitt was grown impatient for power; and 
 having discouraged Lord Rockingham from seeking his 
 aid or protection, began to wonder that he was not 
 courted to domineer; and he betrayed his ambition so 
 far as to complain that the Administration had had his 
 support and now neglected him." 
 
 When the subject of the Militia came before Parlia- 
 ment Mr. Onslow proposed some trifling saving. Lord 
 Strange opposed; and the Government not caring to 
 risk a division, gave way : whereupon Pitt declared, 
 " that he would go to the farthest corner of the island 
 to overturn any Ministers that were enemies to the 
 Militia." " This," adds Walpole, " was all grimace ; 
 he did not care a jot about the Militia." 
 
 This proceeding of Ministers, which was agreed to 
 at a meeting of their supporters, does not appear to 
 have been agreeable to Mr. Charles Yorke, to whom 
 Lord Rockingham wrote as follows: — 
 
 "Dear Sir, "April 15, i 766. 
 
 " I have just had an account from the meeting at 
 Sir George Savile's, where I find that the general senti- 
 ments amongst them were for adhering to that mode 
 which I showed you, and which had been settled and 
 agreed on amongst them for some days. As I under- 
 stand, very little was said upon it, but, having once 
 agreed, they did not care to alter. Your name was not
 
 1760.] CHARACTER OF MR. TRECOTIIICK. 319 
 
 used to inforce the alteration, which was what I parti- 
 cularly desired might be avoided. I am not pleased 
 (neither do I think you will), as indeed for many 
 reasons I was anxious that it should have been con- 
 ducted in the manner which you most approved. I 
 wish Thursday "'' well over, and am sure nothing can 
 procure a good end to this matter, but from your 
 making use, not only of your abilities but also of your 
 temper. 
 
 " Grosvenor Square, Tuesday night." 
 
 Among the most efficient agents in carrying out the 
 repeal of the Stamp Act was Barlow Trecothick, member 
 for London, and one of the aldermen of the City. He 
 was a merchant in the American trade. On the back 
 of a copy of a " General letter sent to the out-ports and 
 manufacturing towns on the 6th of December 1765," 
 Burke has written in pencil, " N.B. This letter con- 
 certed between the Marquis of R. and Mr. Trecothick, 
 the principal instrument in the happy repeal of the 
 Stamp Act, which, without giving up the British au- 
 thority, quieted the Empire." 
 
 He was an attached friend of Lord Rockingham, a 
 good speaker in Parliament, and the most sensible of 
 the City patriots. Burke says, in one of his letters : 
 " Trecothick is certainly a man of strong principle and 
 good natural sense, but his experience of the world is 
 
 * By the Journal of the House of Commons, it appears that on 
 Thursday, the 17th of April, the House ordered that it would, on the 
 Monday following, resolve itself into a committee on the expenses of 
 the Militia.
 
 320 DUKE OF NEWCASTLE TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. [ 1700. 
 
 but moderate." He died in 1775, and bis bomely 
 epitapb records, tbat " be was mucb esteemed by tbe 
 mercbants for bis integrity and knowledge of commerce, 
 truly beloved by bis fellow-citizens, wbo cbose bim 
 as tbeir representative in Parliament, and sincerely 
 lamented by bis friends and relations, wbo looked up to 
 and admired bis virtues." 
 
 On tbe 23rd of April a grand dinner was given at 
 Drapers' Hall in celebration of tbe repeal of tbe Stamp 
 Act. It was among tbe most brilliant ever seen in tbe 
 City, and tbe cbronicles duly record tbat nine dukes 
 ^ were amongst tbe company. Mr. Trecotbick presided. 
 
 THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE TO THE MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHAM. 
 
 "April 22, 1766. 
 
 " Alderman Trecothick was bere tbis morning, 
 and I endeavoured to be excused dining in tbe City 
 to-morrow, for indeed I am too old for sucb entertain- 
 ments and sucb crowds, but be will not excuse me, and 
 said tbere were endeavours used to prevent tbeir friends 
 from coming; and upon tbat, and tbe particular circum- 
 stance of this time, I promised bim to come. Tbe 
 Duke of Portland '''' goes witb me. I bope all our 
 friends will go, and particularly tbe Duke of Grafton. 
 Trecotbick said, tbey did not see bis Grace, but be 
 boped he would come. As I see tbis may be attended 
 
 * William Henry Cavendish Bentinck, third Duke of Portland, at 
 this time Lord Chamberlain. In 1 782 he was appointed Lord Lieu- 
 tenant of Ireland. He became, twice, Prime Minister.
 
 1766.] ANTICIPATED CHANGE OF MINISTRY. 321 
 
 with bad consequences if our first friends do not go, I 
 hope your Lordship will speak to as many as you meet 
 in the course of this day. My Lord Chancellor, I con- 
 clude, was not invited, as he voted against the repeal." 
 
 The next paragraph in the Duke's letter has a 
 significance from the events which immediately followed. 
 
 " It was observed," continues his Grace, " yesterday 
 in the House of Lords, that there were very long con- 
 ferences: first, my Lord Camden and the Chancellor 
 (Northington) for half an hour; afterwards my Lord 
 Camden and the Duke of Grafton retired into a private 
 room, and were together a full hour. The Duke of 
 Grafton then went to the Chancellor, and whispered 
 him for half an hour — that your Lordship saw. What 
 this was I know not, but something to be sure."" 
 
 The Ministers had been frequently informed by the 
 King, that those members holding places, who voted 
 against the repeal, were actuated by conscientious 
 scruples, and that when once that question was settled, 
 they would regularly vote with the Government. But 
 the carrying of that measure produced no change in 
 their conduct, and their opposition continued as sys- 
 tematic and violent as before. 
 
 One of the evils arising from his Majesty's thus '' act- 
 ing in opposition to himself," was the mistrust of the 
 Government that it engendered in the Continental States. 
 Walpole mentions that the INIinisters showed the King 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 322 THE KING TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. [l760. 
 
 " an intercepted letter of the Russian Minister to his 
 Court, in which he wished his mistress not to conclude too 
 hastily with the present Ministers, who could not main- 
 tain their ground ; and he pointed out the damage the 
 King brought on his own affairs by having a Ministry 
 who did not enjoy his confidence. This the King 
 denied, and said they had his confidence."* This con- 
 duct was the more impolitic, because it placed in jeo- 
 pardy a new treaty of commerce between England and 
 Russia, then in preparation, which proved highly bene- 
 ficial to the interests of both countries. 
 
 The transaction here alluded to took place in the 
 month of June ; but we shall show, on the authority of 
 the King himself, that the Prussian Minister had also 
 made a similar representation to his Sovereign, and that 
 his Majesty attributes the " coyness" of Frederick to 
 those reports. The " Baudouin" mentioned in the 
 King's letter was M. de Boduin, Secretary of Legation 
 to the Prussian Legation. Count de Malzahn had been 
 appointed Minister, but had not then arrived. 
 
 THE KING TO THE MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHAM. 
 
 "Lord Rockingham, "(April 25), 1766. 
 
 " What you mention to have been the inclination of 
 Sir Richard Aston,f by his charge to the Jury, is very 
 
 * Walpole's George the Third, ii. 332. 
 
 t Richard Aston, Esq., Sergeant-at-Law, was knighted, and sworn 
 in one of the Judges of the Court of King's Bench on the 25th of 
 April, 1765, which office he resigned in 1778, and died shortly after.
 
 176C.] THE KING TO GENERAL CONWAY. 323 
 
 material; and as Lord Mansfield (whose opinion on these 
 subjects I would more confide in than on that of any 
 man) does think favourably of the convict, I with plea- 
 sure direct you to send to Lieutenant-General Conway 
 that the sentence may be changed from death to trans- 
 portation/"' You will laugh when you read the decy- 
 phered letter I have just seen of Baudouin, wherein he 
 talks of a fresh change in the Ministry ; I should rather 
 hope it is [more] from want of sense than ill intention 
 that he writes such gross falsehoods to his Court. 
 
 "George R. 
 
 " Richmond Lodge, 2m. past 5, p.m." 
 
 the king to the right hon. henry seymour conway.f 
 
 " Lieut.-General Conway, 
 
 " I have just received your packet, but cannot help 
 expressing some surprise at the great coyness of the 
 King of Prussia. I should have expected a different 
 answer to the very friendly and, I may say, indulgent 
 part I have on this occasion acted towards him ; but I 
 would fain hope this is owing to the fallacious accounts 
 he has received from Baudouin. If he expects that I 
 am to go all the way, and that he is only to receive me 
 
 * In the Lent Assizes of 1766, Sir Richard Aston went the 
 Western Circuit. The sentences of more than one convict on that 
 circuit were commuted from death to transportation, 
 
 t It is right to state that General Conway has dated this letter, 
 April 25, 1765 ; but there is evidently a mistake in the date of the 
 year, for in April 1765, Lord Rockingham was not minister; General 
 Conway was not leader of the House of Commons, and Sir Richard 
 Aston had not then gone circuit as a Judge. 
 
 Y 2
 
 824 RESOLUTIONS ON GENERAL WARRANTS. [l766. 
 
 if he pleases, he is much mistaken; for I think the 
 Crown of Great Britain a more useful ally to the King 
 of Prussia, than he ever can be in return ; and I here 
 repeat, what you heard me express to the Duke of 
 Grafton at the opening of this affair, that if the King 
 of Prussia means anew to live well with me, I shall have 
 no objection to do so with him ; but if he expects that I 
 am to express any sorrow for what has passed betwixt 
 us, that is impossible, for I could not act otherwise than 
 I have done, if my sole object was the interest of my 
 country, which I should not be an honest man if I at 
 any time neglected for other concerns. 
 «* 30 m. past 1, p.m." 
 
 Lord Rockingham and his friends, fully aware of the 
 precariousness of their situation, determined to devote 
 the remainder of their brief political existence to repair 
 the breaches in the Constitution that had been made by 
 their predecessors. With this view, on Tuesday the 
 22nd of April, they moved in the House of Commons a 
 series of resolutions declaring the illegality of general 
 warrants. No detailed account has yet been given of 
 the debate on this constitutional question ; but a few 
 remarks from Walpole will render the following letter 
 intelligible. 
 
 " The Ministers, thinking themselves bound to give 
 the last blow to general warrants, which had now been 
 decided in Westminster Hall to be illegal, moved a 
 resolution of their being illegal and a breach of privi- 
 lege. Grenville, hoping to squeeze out a little popularity
 
 1766.] SIR GREY COOPER TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. 325 
 
 from the same measure, moved to bring in a bill for 
 taking them entirely away. This happening when Mr. 
 Pitt was in his hostile mood, he seconded Grenville's 
 motion; but his lending himself thus to the cham- 
 pion of these warrants, highly offended the Ministerial 
 Whigs."* 
 
 SIR GREY COOPER TO THE MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHAM. 
 
 "My Lord, "April 26, 1766. 
 
 " I have the honour to inform your Lordship, that 
 late in the night of Tuesday last, after Sir George Savile 
 and Sir W. Meredith's motion had been agreed to, Mr. 
 Pitt, in order, as he said, to make the question in Par- 
 liament co-extensive with the decision in the Courts of 
 Law, moved that all general warrants were illegal, and 
 that, being executed on the person of a Member of Par- 
 liament is a breach of privilege. After some debate and 
 hesitation that night, it was thought proper to define a 
 general warrant by its want of attributes, namely, not 
 describing both the offender and the offence. The 
 Master of the Rolls having recommended it to the House 
 (though a friend to the proposition) not to come too 
 hastily into a resolution of so much extent and impor- 
 tance, it was postponed for that time, but not till after 
 Mr. Grenville, in a wonderful springtide of liberty, had 
 pledged himself to record the motion of the very honour- 
 able gentleman. 
 
 " The further consideration of this matter came on 
 
 * Walpole's George the Third., ii. 317.
 
 326 SIR GREY COOPER [176G. 
 
 yesterday. Mr. Pitt moved his resolution with apparent 
 and, as / think^ with real diffidence of carrying his 
 point. It received a very affectionate adoption from 
 Mr. Yorke, who defended the generality of the proposi- 
 tion with great talents aiid great firmness. Sir Fletcher 
 shook it by his first speech to its foundations. It was 
 again set upon its legs, and whilst it was tottering, Mr. 
 Pitt, in what is called a very Parliamentary manner, 
 shifted his ground, and put his question, not upon a 
 declaration, but an assumption of law, in this manner : 
 A general warrant to apprehend any person or persons 
 being illegal (except in cases provided by Act of Parlia- 
 ment), if executed on the person of a Member of this 
 House, is a breach of the privilege of this House. Mr. 
 Solicitor-General opposed this proposition with great 
 warmth, as being too large and too assuming, and upon 
 the general ground of the impropriety and want of 
 dignity in the House of Commons to declare that to be 
 law, which no Court of Westminster Hall would regard 
 as law; and that though the resolution upon a matter 
 incident to privilege, and brought before the House, 
 might be excusable, it could not be so to declare a 
 general resolution upon a special case. 
 
 " Mr. Attorney-General spoke in favour of the ques- 
 tion with great weight, and, I think, superiority of 
 argument. Sir Fletcher took the opposite opinion, and 
 bore very hard both upon the Attorney and Mr. Gren- 
 ville, who had half-seconded Mr. Pitt's motion upon a 
 subtle distinction (which he loves better than any of 
 his brothers), that he seconded the motion merely as
 
 17G(5] TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. 327 
 
 the foundation of a Bill to be brought in, for the better 
 securing the liberty of the subject. Sir Fletcher said 
 Mr. Grenville's distinction had neither solidity, common 
 law, nor common sense. He argued that the resolution 
 moved by Sir W. Meredith, was co-extensive both with 
 the question before the House and the determination of 
 Westminster Hall. He /zaZ/'-asserted that there were 
 general warrants good and warranted by the common 
 law, besides those provided for by Act of Parliament. 
 Mr. Yorke took up the reply with great ability and 
 advantage, and after much altercation on both sides, 
 and much suppression of truth on one side, Mr. Yorke 
 kept the field with great acclamation of the House. 
 Sir George Savile did, as he always does, masterly and 
 greatly. His character, his spirit, his prowess, his 
 sagacity, and his power of expression never carried 
 more weight or ran better. Great men were rebutted 
 in his presence. I never heard, I never shall hear, a 
 more truly eloquent speech (according to all the rules 
 of the art) that [than?] Mr. Pitt's reply. No man 
 ever rode upon a better-dressed horse, or brought him 
 up to the object which made him snort, with more 
 address than that rider did upon that occasion. 
 
 " After this lesson in the great political manage, the 
 altercation rose again between Mr. Attorney and Sir 
 Fletcher, but still to the honour and victory of the 
 Attorney. Sir Fletcher was groaned down for nisi- 
 prills misrepresentations of what his opponent said. 
 Lord George Sackville spoke with spirit against the 
 question. At last, Mr. Yorke, being pressed by Mr.
 
 328 SIR GREY COOPER [l766. 
 
 Wilbraham, Mr. Forrester, Mr. Harvey, and all the 
 other lawyers, to declare whether any respect was due 
 to a determination of Parliament in the Court of Judi- 
 cation, and whether the honourable gentleman would 
 venture to pledge himself, that in no case a general 
 warrant was good by the common law^ he got up, 
 and, to the satisfaction and with the cry of the House, 
 declared, that it was his firm opinion that, at this day^ 
 after the declarations in the Third of Charles the First 
 and the Revolution, no general warrant, that is, no 
 warrant not describing the offender and the offence, 
 was good at the common law ; and he said, with great 
 warmth, that if he were a Judge in Westminster Hall, 
 he would always treat a determination of either House 
 of Parliament, upon a matter incident to and growing 
 out of their privileges (in which matter they had judi- 
 cial authority), with great respect and reverence, though 
 he should not think himself obliged to determine the 
 law according to such declaration \ and that if any 
 Judge should treat the declarations of Parliament with 
 contempt or irreverence, it might be said to him with 
 great propriety — 
 
 ' Rode, caper, vitem — tamen huic cum stabis ad aras 
 In tua quod fundi cornua possit, erit,' * 
 
 " At the close of the debate, Mr. Dowdeswell got up, 
 and, with great weight, accused the man who had de- 
 fended the officers who had executed such warrant at 
 the great expense of the public, after the legality of 
 them" had been disavowed by all the lawyers in West- 
 
 * Ovid, Fast. i. 357.
 
 1705.] TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. 829 
 
 minster Hall, and whose opinions must have been 
 communicated to the Ministers immediately after the 
 question arose. 
 
 " Mr. Grenville got up in great wrath and vehemence, 
 and desired to know of the honourable gentleman, 
 whether, if he had been in the Treasury at the time 
 of such prosecutions, he would have suffered the mes- 
 sengers to rot in gaol and not have defended them. 
 Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer got up in reply, with 
 his own temper and firmness, and said, ' If I had been 
 in that gentleman's situation, I would have taken the 
 best advice as soon as possible, whether these warrants 
 were defensible, and if I had found they were not, I 
 should have recommended an early submission.' 
 
 " This reply was received, as all such declarations 
 are, with great applause from the House, and great noti- 
 fication by the few who wish well to the man who asked 
 the question. Mr. Serjeant Hewitt, upon motives of 
 delicacy, and I dare say honour, declared he could not 
 vote for the question ; and to avoid it, moved the pre- 
 vious question. There was no division, and the question 
 was carried as I have stated it before. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, 
 " With the utmost affection and gratitude, 
 " Your Lordship's faithful servant, 
 
 "Grey Cooper. 
 
 " In very great haste and hurry." 
 
 The reader will, doubtless, remember that the Duke 
 of Newcastle, in his letter of the 22nd of April alludes 
 
 -■r/;.
 
 330 LORD IIARDWICKE TO HON. C. YORKE. [l7GG. 
 
 to certain ominous conferences between the King's con- 
 fidential friend, Lord Northington, and Mr. Pitt's confi- 
 dential friends, Lord Camden and the Duke of Grafton. 
 A few days afterwards, the Duke of Grafton paid a visit 
 to Mr. Pitt at Hayes, and on his return took an early 
 opportunity of saying in the House of Lords that the 
 Government wanted " authority, dignity, and exten- 
 sion," but added, that " if Mr. Pitt would give his assist- 
 ance he should with pleasure take up the spade and dig 
 in the trenches." On the 14th of May the Duke re- 
 signed the seals of Secretary of State. 
 
 The vacant ofiice was off"ered to Lord Hardwicke who 
 notices his refusal of it in the following letter : — 
 
 " Dear Brother, " St. James's Square, May 14th, 1766. 
 
 " Lord Rockingham called upon me to-day before 
 dinner, with an ofler of the Seals, which he said he 
 now made me with the King's knowledge and approba- 
 tion, the Duke of Grafton having resigned this morn- 
 ing. I will not trouble you by a repetition of my 
 disabling excuses, or of the dutiful sense which I en- 
 deavoured to express of his Majesty's grace and good- 
 ness towards me on this occasion. The more coolly and 
 seriously I think of undertaking this important office, 
 the less inclined I feel myself to accept it. I am sure 
 it would be too much for me, and, as a confinement in 
 and about Town all the summer, extremely inconvenient 
 too, if not prejudicial to my health. 
 
 " I repeated to Lord Rockingham what I had said 
 before about the Cabinet Council with the communica-
 
 1766] LORD IIARDWICKE TO HON. C. YORKE. 331 
 
 tion of the papers ; and that if it was thought I could 
 be of service in that situation, I was at his Majesty's 
 disposal. 
 
 " Lord Kockingham seemed to think there could be 
 no difficulty in granting me that mark of distinction, 
 but intimated that it would be proper to make my own 
 excuses for declining the Seals, and take that oppor- 
 tunity to mention the other. I said I should be ready 
 to attend his Majesty whenever it was most convenient. 
 Lord Rockingham promised to let me know in the 
 course of to-morrow, and, I presume, I shall be ap- 
 pointed for Friday after the levee. 
 
 " There is another promotion which I am sure would 
 be of more use to the King's affairs, which I am sorry to 
 see postponed, and which, if things were on a right 
 footing, would not be delayed a week, and which was 
 indeed promised you in a very ejctraordinary manner 
 by the end of the session. Would you have me drop 
 anything on your subject when I go into the Closet? 
 I mean, if any handle is given and it falls naturally in 
 my way." 
 
 THE EARL OF HARDWICKE TO THE UON. CHARLES YORKE. 
 
 "Dear Brother, "Richmond, May 17tli, 1766. 
 
 " I made my disabling speeches yesterday in the 
 Closet, and was very favourably heard. His Alajesty 
 was pleased to say, he knew of nobody so fit for the 
 office; but, after what I said to him of my health, and 
 the effect which a constant weight of business might
 
 332 LORD HARDWICKE TO HON. C. YORKE. [1766. 
 
 have upon it, he would not blame me for declining, 
 and graciously let me off. I plainly saw he was much 
 embarrassed and perplexed. He said two things about 
 yourself (which is the chief occasion of my troubling 
 you with a letter) ; the first, that he had been informed 
 (by the Duke of N., I think) that you had sometimes 
 talked of quitting your profession; if that was agree- 
 able to you, he wished you would take the Seals, and 
 that, in his opinion, the Great Seal would with equal 
 propriety be transferred to you afterwards, whenever 
 there was an opening. 
 
 " I told his Majesty, I believed if you had ever 
 talked of quitting your profession, it had been in case 
 circumstances should make it absolutely impossible for 
 you to continue in it, and then it would be for an 
 absolute retreat, and not to go upon another line. The 
 King said, he only threw it out to convince me how 
 much he wished to have one of your family in his inti- 
 mate service. 
 
 " The other point relating to you was, that the King 
 desired I would let you know how he was concerned 
 and hurt at the part which his servants took the other 
 day in dividing from you in the House of Commons; 
 that he had talked to them about it, and was greatly 
 surprised at their conduct. On this head we both 
 lamented the want of concert, faction, &c. of the times; 
 all which chapter may well be spared, as I see no 
 remedy to the evil. I cannot help adding, and then 
 shall conclude, that his Majesty seemed very unwilling 
 to make the Duke of Richmond [Secretary], and to
 
 17CG.] LORD IIARDWICKE'S " MEMORIALL." 333 
 
 entertain a very favourable opinion of Lord Holder- 
 nesse, whose savoir faire in that department he com- 
 mended, particularly his accuracy and exactness. I 
 threw out a word of Lord Egmont, and his Majesty 
 said shortly, and as if he did not choose to be asked 
 any questions about it, ' Oh, he will not think of it!' 
 
 " Upon the whole, I left the King much agitated, 
 and I could not help heartily pitying his situation, and 
 that of the public. However, I have thrown off a 
 great burden from my own mind, and I am not con- 
 scious that it would have been in my power to have 
 mended matters. 
 
 " I am, dear brother, yours sincerely, 
 
 "IL 
 
 " P. S. The King seemed to taste the Duke of 
 Grafton, and commended his parts; neither did he 
 express any resentment against him for quitting so 
 abruptly and (I think) unhandsomely." 
 
 In his " Memoriall " Lord Hardwicke says in relation 
 to these transactions, — 
 
 " Towards the close of the session in April 1766, and 
 when most of the material business was over, the Duke 
 of Grafton (upon whom the labouring oar had lain in 
 the House of Lords) declared his resolution of resign- 
 ing. The only reason he assigned (as far as I could 
 learn) that, as he had declared from the beginning, 
 and even to the Duke of Cumberland, that he would 
 not go on without Mr. Pitt, whose accession to that
 
 334 LORD IIAKDWICKE'S " MEMORIALL." [1766. 
 
 Ministry he looked upon as a sine qua non^ and, as 
 there was no prospect of taking him in, several fruitless 
 attempts having been made for that purpose, he must 
 adhere to his original declaration; that, however, he 
 would support the measures they were embarked in to 
 the end of the session out of office ; and his Grace so 
 far made his words good, that he spoke for the new 
 Window tax bill in the House of Lords, which was 
 strongly opposed by the Duke of Bedford and others. 
 
 " Lord Rockingham's bottom was now much weak- 
 ened; by his want of management for Lord Bute, he 
 had lost all interest at Court. Mr. Pitt, who was 
 possessed of real abilities, and at that time of great 
 popularity, had refused his assistance without having 
 carte blanche^ and would open himself to no ear but the 
 Royal. The Opposition in Parliament were strong and 
 numerous, and in the House of Lords much inferior in 
 the weight of speakers. 
 
 " Thus circumstanced, and having resolved not to 
 unite with any of the sets which composed the Oppo- 
 sition, his (Lord Rockingham's) choice of a new Secre- 
 tary was confined to a very narrow circle. The Duke 
 of Richmond and myself were the only persons under 
 consideration. The former had been more active in 
 Parliament, and was of an ambitious, enterprising turn. 
 I have been told that Lord Rockingham (but will not 
 answer for the truth of it) was more inclined to his 
 Grace from the beginning, but that the Duke of New- 
 castle's opinion, and the King's inclination, turned the 
 scale in my favour. However that may be, the offer
 
 17G0.] LORD IIARDWICKE'S " MEMORIALL." 335 
 
 of the Seals was made me in form by the Marquis of 
 Rockingham not long before the Whitsun holidays in 
 May 176G. There was great temptation in the offer; 
 the dignity and figure the employment gave were self- 
 evident; the opportunities it afforded of serving one's 
 friends, were considerable ; the business was of a nature 
 for which I had always had a predilection, and in which 
 I had been conversant, so far as theory and study would 
 carry me. I was tolerably well acquainted with the 
 modern state of Europe, and, by the confidence which 
 my father had for some years reposed in me, had been 
 kept well informed of the most important anecdotes of a 
 very long period. But, on the other side, there were 
 strong and cogent objections to my undertaking so great 
 a branch. I could not flatter myself that my expe- 
 rience in the practice of the world (having never con- 
 versed largely in it, and lived a good deal amongst 
 my books), was sufficient to steer me through the 
 rocks and quicksands of a Court and public life, and I 
 thought myself rather too much on the other side of 
 forty, and had lived too much in my own way, to begin 
 acting a new part in it." 
 
 After mentioning the state of his health, Lord Ilard- 
 wicke continues : — 
 
 " On weighing the whole matter as well as I could, 
 and talking it over with some of my friends (amongst 
 whom none but the Duke of Newcastle and Lord 
 Grantham strongly encouraged me to accept), I soon
 
 336 LORD IIARDWICKE'S "MEMORIALL." [17G6. 
 
 determined to decline this great offer as I had done 
 the former. 
 
 " When I communicated this resolution to Lord 
 Eockingham, he received it with much candour, ad- 
 mitted that I was best able to judge for myself, though 
 he could have wished my determination had been other- 
 wise; but expressed his hopes that I would consent to 
 be called to the Cabinet Council, where, he was pleased 
 to say, I should be of use, and might take no greater 
 share of the business upon me than was agreeable. It 
 was then, if I mistake not, that he assigned the nego- 
 ciation with Mr. Pitt, mentioned in one of the preced- 
 ing pages, as the reason for this mark of confidence not 
 having been shown me sooner. I readily consented to 
 this last proposal, which was to me very flattering, and 
 had as many of the agremens of the greater offer as I 
 wished to enjoy, and none of the supposed difficulties; 
 and I was in hopes that my being of the Cabinet might 
 tend to facilitate my brother's promotion to the Great 
 Seal ; and the confidential informations which I should 
 receive from it, would be of service in the station he 
 then filled* at the same time that his knowledge and 
 abilities would be of use to me. 
 
 " So much being settled between the Marquis and 
 myself, it was necessary that I should take an audience 
 of the King, to thank his Majesty for the great honour 
 he had done me ; and to give my reasons for declining. 
 His Majesty received my apology very graciously, and 
 was pleased to say that, however agreeable my accept- 
 
 * That of Attorney-General.
 
 17(5G.] LORD IIARDWICKE'S " MEMORIALL." 337 
 
 ance would have been to him, he could not ask it after 
 what I had said to him of my health and disinclination; 
 that he hoped I should not have the same objection to 
 the attending at his Cabinet Council; to which I replied 
 with the duty that became me. 
 
 " There were some remarkable passages in the con- 
 versation, in which the King talked with seeming frank- 
 ness and sincerity. He appeared thoroughly sensible 
 of the weakness of his Administration, and of the dif- 
 ficulty he found himself under to fill up this vacancy in 
 it. He commended the Duke of Grafton's parts and 
 manner of speaking in public (which, I believe, had 
 been much cried up by those about him). He did not 
 seem to taste the successor who was intended (viz., the 
 Duke of Richmond), and said it was replacing a young 
 man by one who was younger ; and I thought he meant 
 I should understand, not so proper in other respects. 
 He asked, in this part of the conference, if my brother, 
 Mr. C, would not come into the Secretary's office; and 
 upon my observing that I did not pretend to know his 
 mind on that head, but that it lay out of the line of a 
 profession which those engaged in had always kept to, 
 he replied readily enough, ' Why should his accepting 
 those seals be in the way of his having the other f ' I 
 bowed and made no answer, but wished at the time 
 that his Majesty had spoken more explicitly on the point 
 of the Great Seal. T endeavoured to sound the King's 
 disposition towards Mr. Pitt; but he appeared not 
 at all favourable to him at that moment; called his 
 popularity an Ignis fatuus^ and took some merit in 
 
 VOL. I. z
 
 338 LORD HARDWICKE'S "MEMORIALL." [1766. 
 
 not having admitted him to state his own terms, which 
 he knew were levelled against his present Administra- 
 tion. I said something of Lord Egmont's fitness to 
 be Secretary of State; but the King answered shortly, 
 ' No ; he could by no means think of it, and would not 
 own further on that topic.' Upon the whole, I was so 
 far struck with — (I wish I may not add) was so far 
 the dupe of his Majesty's gracious and condescending 
 reception of me, and thought he appeared so much dis- 
 tressed with his situation, that I verily believe had he 
 pressed me to take the Seals with any earnestness before 
 I left the Closet, I should have accepted out of pure 
 duty and zeal — ' Sic me servavit Apollo.'' 
 
 " After I had given the Marquis of Rockingham a 
 short account of my audience, I went to Richmond for 
 the Whitsun holidays, where for a week or ten days I 
 heard no more of political arrangements, but that the 
 DuJce of Richmond was come to town, and had accepted 
 the Seals." 
 
 George the Third, to borrow the expressive phrase of 
 Lord Hardwicke, " did not taste the successor to the 
 vacant seals." Among other reasons for the Royal dis- 
 relish of the appointment, Walpole assigns the following : 
 
 " Early in this reign. Lord Fitzmaurice, afterwards 
 Earl of Shelburne, being at the time in high favour with 
 Lord Bute, was made Equerry to the King, over the 
 head of his superior ofiicer. Lord George Lennox. The 
 Duke of Richmond, irritated by this slight to his rela- 
 tive, carried a memorial to his Majesty, and commented
 
 17G0.] CriARACTER OF DUKE OF RICHMOND. 339 
 
 upon tlie appointment in a manner that was neither 
 ' forgiven nor forgotten/ by a Prince equally remarkable 
 for his keen resentments and his retentive memory. The 
 following pages will indeed afford more than one proof 
 that the King for several years to come continued to re- 
 gard the Duke of Richmond with no favourable eye.'" 
 
 Charles Lennox, second Duke of Richmond, succeeded 
 to his title at the early age of sixteen, and soon after- 
 wards entered the army. He was present at the battle 
 of Minden, and his gallantry on that occasion attracted 
 the special notice of the Commander-in-Chief On the 
 formation of the Rockingham Ministry, the Duke was 
 appointed to the Court of Versailles, and performed the 
 duties of his embassy with great ability. He was ever 
 a devoted adherent of Lord Rockingham, under whose 
 second Administration, in 1782, he held the office of 
 Master- General of the Ordnance. 
 
 On the death of that Minister, in the summer of the 
 same year, the Whigs consulted who was to be the 
 future head of the party. The Duke of Richmond 
 claimed the post, but the Cavendishes and the other 
 great families objected to his Grace, on account of his 
 being so deeply pledged to Universal Suffrage and 
 Annual Parliaments. He was highly offended at this, 
 more especially as the Duke of Portland was proposed 
 by the majority of the Whig party. Charles Fox tried 
 to pacify the Duke of Richmond by saying that, per- 
 haps, he himself, as leader of the House of Commons, 
 might have as good pretensions as his Grace, but that 
 he thought it right to waive those pretensions, as he 
 
 z 2
 
 340 CHARACTER OF DUKE OF RICHMOND. [l76G. 
 
 too, although to a mucli less degree, was pledged to 
 Parliamentary Reform. Moreover, as the Cavendishes 
 and their friends were not disposed to support even the 
 moderate views which he entertained on that subject, 
 it was clear that neitlier the Duke of Richmond nor 
 himself could succeed to Lord Rockingham's place, 
 without risking a fatal breach in the party. In con- 
 sequence of this declaration, the Duke, on the ibrmation 
 of the Coalition, broke off from his former friends, and 
 joined a combination still more heterogeneous in its 
 elements than that which he quitted.* 
 
 The Duke of Richmond was remarkable for the 
 beauty of his person and the grace and courtesy of 
 his manners. In every relation of private life his cha- 
 racter was unexceptionable. He was a zealous friend, 
 an affectionate brother, an attached relative. As a 
 public man, he was very ambitious and somewhat vio- 
 lent and impracticable. As an orator, he was rather 
 effective than agreeable. His speeches abounded in 
 information; his language was characterized by bold- 
 ness and warmth of expression, and he excelled in 
 reply. On the other hand, his memory often failed 
 him; he made frequent pauses, and his delivery was 
 unnecessarily slow. Yet with all these defects, he was, 
 perhaps, the most formidable antagonist that the great- 
 est orator of that day had ever encountered. 
 
 When the Indemnity of 1766 was brought up to the 
 House of Peers, Pitt, who had just been created Earl 
 
 * My authority for this statement is the Right Hon. Sir Robert 
 Adair, G.C.B., to whom it was made by his uncle. Lord Keppel.
 
 17(56] DUKE OF RICHMOND TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. 341 
 
 of Chatham, and appointed first minister of the Crown, 
 wound up a fierce diatribe against the House of Peers, 
 by declaring that he would set his face against the 
 proudest connexion in the country. The Duke of Rich- 
 mond took this up, and said, " he hoped the nobility 
 would not be browbeaten by so insolent a minister." 
 Lord Chatham is said to have been " stunned by this 
 rough attack," and it was observed that from that day, 
 during the whole remainder of his Administration, he 
 appeared no more in the House of JLords. 
 
 When Chatham again took part in debate, it was as 
 a political associate of the Duke of Richmond. The 
 alliance lasted several years. In their next difierence 
 of opinion, Richmond uttered that speech which was 
 considered to be Chatham's death-blow. 
 
 Walpole mentions that the Duke, in answer to the 
 notification he received from Lord Rockingham, on the 
 subject of his appointment, marked his being sensible 
 how little he had been his Majesty's choice. The letter 
 alluded to is as follows : 
 
 " Goodwood, Monday Evening, 19th May, 1766. 
 " The King's thinking of appointing me his Secretary 
 of State for the Southern Department, must ever fill 
 my mind with the highest sense of duty and gratitude. 
 At the same time I feel it is an honour I had no right 
 to expect, from any use I can possibly be of, and must 
 proceed from the partiality with which your Lordship 
 and General Conway have represented me to his Ma- 
 jesty. This is even more pleasing to me, than to have
 
 342 DUKE OF RICHMOND TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. [1766. 
 
 been thought equal to so great an undertaking; for the 
 esteem of my friends far outweighs my vanity. 
 
 " But, however unable I fear I am to fill so important 
 a post in the manner I could wish, I think it my duty 
 to the King to undertake it, since his Majesty has been 
 pleased to name me ; and the entire confidence I repose 
 in your Lordship and the rest of his Majesty's servants, 
 ensures me that, though my part may fail in the execu- 
 tion, I can never be embarked in any measures, but 
 such as are directly, tending to his Majesty's honour 
 and the good of the public. If perseverance in these 
 can make my services acceptable to the King, I shall 
 esteem myself happy. 
 
 "As to opposition, I foresee a great deal of very 
 troublesome work, but am no way dismayed at it, for 
 I have no doubt but that good measures, supported by 
 honest men and protected by his Majesty, will ever 
 meet with the approbation of the nation in general. 
 The discontents of interested and disappointed men 
 need only be despised to be ineffectual. 
 
 " Lord Dartmouth's being either Secretary of State 
 for the Plantations, or First Lord of Trade, with fuller 
 powers, is, I imagine, very proper, having often heard 
 that the American affairs load the Southern Department 
 with so much business, as to make it almost impossible 
 to go through with it. For my part, I shall be happy 
 to leave that branch in so much abler hands." 
 
 A few days after the Duke of Eichmond was ap- 
 pointed Secretary of State, Lord Rockingham received
 
 17G(>.] LORD NORTIIINGTON TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. 343 
 
 the following characteristic letter, from the captious and 
 grumbling Chancellor. 
 
 The first paragraph appears to refer to the Bill for 
 Quebec, which Northington made the pretext for over- 
 throwing his colleagues. 
 
 THE EARL OF NORTHINGTON TO THE MARQUIS OF 
 
 ROCKINGHAM. 
 " My Lord, " Grange, May 22, 1766. 
 
 " Your messenger came here last night as I was 
 going to bed, (so) that I could not return him with 
 this and the copy of the Bill till this morning. I have 
 perused the Bill, according to your Lordship's desire, 
 and my thoughts of it are, that should it pass into a 
 law, it would be the most ojjpressive to the subject that 
 ever was enacted; and that it erects into an Inquisi- 
 tion every inferior magistrate ; and, in a summary way, 
 vests the supreme power of tormenting in the Court of 
 King's Bench. These are my private thoughts, perhaps 
 shallow ones, for I own I cannot fathom the depth of 
 modern politics. 
 
 "I am glad to find your Lordship hath supplied the 
 vacant Seals, as the state it was in was not creditable 
 to Government; and the like satisfaction I receive in 
 the accession of Lord North. 
 
 "I am acquainted with no particulars of the state of 
 Ireland; bad enough I suppose it must be, from the 
 nature of that people and of our government of it ; and 
 I presume its disorder too rank to be remedied ; but I 
 shall be in Loudon on Sunday evening to attend my duty.
 
 3U LORD north's anticipated rise. [1766. 
 
 " The weather is so fine, the country so pleasant, and 
 the birds so melodious, I shall regret to leave them 
 even for the harmony I shall meet in London. 
 
 " I wish your Lordship health and happiness, and 
 have the honour to be, with great respect, 
 
 " My Lord, Your Lordship's most obedient 
 
 '' And most humble servant, 
 
 " S o'clock, A. M." " NORTHINGTON." 
 
 " See," said Charles Townshend, when Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer, " see that great, heavy, booby-looking, 
 seeming changeling; you may believe me when I assure 
 you as a fact, that if anything should happen to me, 
 he will succeed to my place, and very shortly after 
 come to be First Commissioner of the Treasury." 
 
 The person here alluded to was Frederick Lord North, 
 and the prediction was exactly fulfilled, immediately on 
 poor Charles's death. Nor was Townshend the only 
 person who foretold his rise. George Grenville, walk- 
 ing with another gentleman in the Park, met the future 
 Minister, apparently rehearsing a speech. " Here comes 
 blubbery North," said the latter to Grenville. " I 
 wonder what he is getting by heart, for I am sure it 
 can be nothing of his own." " You are mistaken," 
 replied Grenville; " North is a man of great promise 
 and high qualifications, and if he does not relax in his 
 political pursuits, he is very likely to be Prime 
 Minister."""^ 
 
 To Lord North, Rockingham now offered the post of 
 
 * European Magazine, xxx. 82.
 
 nm.] LORD NORTH TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. 345 
 
 Vice-Treasurer of Ireland; but the conduct of the Court 
 discouraged him, as Avell as many others, from accept- 
 ing office under the Government. " It cost him/' says 
 Walpole, " many bitter pangs, not to preserve his 
 virtue, but liis vicious connexions. He goggled his 
 eyes, and groped in his money pocket, more than half 
 consented ; nay, so much more, that when he got home, 
 he wrote an excuse to Lord Rockingham, which made 
 it plain that he thought he had accepted." 
 The letter here spoken of is as follows. 
 
 LORD NORTH TO THE MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHAM. 
 
 "My Lord, "May 24.th, 1766. 
 
 " As this is your Lordship's levee day, I am in hopes 
 this letter will find you before you see the King. I am 
 much obliged to your Lordship and Mr. Conway for the 
 message you sent to me this morning by my friend Mr. 
 Townshend, and can never be an ill-wisher to an ad- 
 ministration from whom I have received such marks of 
 kindness. But not to enter at large into my motives, I 
 shall rest more self-satisfied, if I continue as I am, than 
 if I accept the office you have been so good as to pro- 
 pose to me. I beg pardon for all my difficulties, which 
 must have embarrassed you and my other friends, and, 
 particularly, for this last change of opinion. I shall be 
 always constant in regard to your Lordship, and grate- 
 ful remembrance of your kind intentions. 
 
 " I am, my Lord, with the greatest respect, 
 " Your most faithful humble servant, 
 
 " North."
 
 346 LORD ROCKINGHAM AND DYSON. [1760. 
 
 The expression used by Lord Ilardwicke in the last 
 quoted extract from his " Memoriall,"* that Lord 
 Rockingham had " lost all interest at Court," did but 
 convey the almost universal belief of the tottering con- 
 dition of the latter nobleman, as a Minister. Yet, from 
 the King's demeanour, he might have been led to an 
 opposite conclusion. " Lord Rockingham and Dowdes- 
 well," writes Lord Temple, on the 4th of May, " are 
 caressed by the King at Court beyond expression." 
 "Lord Rockingham himself told me," says Nicholls, 
 " that the King never showed him such distinguished 
 marks of kindness as after he had secretly determined 
 to get rid of him." 
 
 A message from the Crown was brought down to the 
 Commons on the 3rd of June, by the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer, respecting a settlement for the Princess 
 Caroline Matilda, about to be married to the King of 
 Denmark. Mr. Dyson offered a precedent against the 
 consideration of the message on that day. The Govern- 
 ment divided, and rejected Dyson's motion by 118 to 
 35. The following day. Lord Rockingham begged the 
 King would dismiss Dyson. His Majesty hesitated, 
 but desired Lord Rockingham to talk to him. Lord 
 Rockingham had an hour's interview with Dyson, who 
 disclaimed opposition, but professed to dislike measures, 
 taking care, however, to take exception against every 
 act of the Government. 
 
 Lord Rockingham, thereupon asked the King to dis- 
 miss Dyson ; and it may be inferred from the King's 
 
 * See page 334, line 12.
 
 17()G.] THE KING TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. 347 
 
 tiuswer, requested also that some Peers might be created, 
 as a proof that he had the royal confidence. The fol- 
 lowing answer will show with what success. 
 
 the king to the marquis of rockingham. 
 
 " Lord Rockingham, 
 
 " I have just received your letter, and shall to-mor- 
 row talk over the aflair of Mr. Dyson with you. As 
 to the Peerages, I thought I had yesterday, as well as 
 on many former occasions, expressed an intention of 
 not, at least for the present, increasing the Peerage, 
 and remain entirely now of that opinion. 
 
 "George R. 
 
 "Richmond Lodge, 35 m. past 6 p.m." 
 
 Writing, towards the latter end of May, to Sir George 
 Savile, Lord Rockingham says, " Politics are much as 
 they were when you went away. We shall have a rough 
 ocean to sail through; but as I hope our bottom is 
 sound, we may weather all storms, or, at least if we 
 should be wrecked, we shall not suffer in honour, or as 
 private men." It was not, however, by storms, but by 
 hidden shoals and false beacons, that the Whig vessel 
 was doomed to founder. Secret negociations for its 
 destruction were set on foot almost immediately after 
 the prorogation. The first agent for this service was 
 John Percival, Earl of Egmont. Ever since the for- 
 mation of the Leicester House faction, this nobleman 
 had been amongst its most able and active partisans.
 
 348 CHARACTER OF LORD EGMONT. [1706. 
 
 He was a fluent and plausible debater, and the author 
 of several political tracts, which had considerable popu- 
 larity in their day. When his ambition was not con- 
 cerned, he was, if Walpole may be trusted, " humane, 
 friendly, and good-humoured as it was possible for a 
 man to be, who was never known to smile or laugh ; he 
 was once, indeed, seen to smile, and that was at chess. 
 "With considerable talents, he combined numerous eccen- 
 tricities. When scarce a man, he had a scheme for 
 assembling the Jews, and making himself their king. 
 Another whim was such an affection for the olden 
 times, as to wish to establish a feudal government in 
 the Island of St. John ; and when he rebuilt his house 
 at Enmore, in Somersetshire, he made it in the guise 
 of a castle, moated it round, and prepared it to defend 
 itself with cross-bows and arrows, against the time in 
 which the fabric and use of gunpowder should be for- 
 gotten." A journal which the Duke of Richmond kept 
 of the last days of the Eockingham Administration, has 
 reference to Lord Egmont; and when it is borne in 
 mind that his Lordship was a Cabinet Minister, and 
 first Lord of the Admiralty, in the Government of 
 Avhich he speaks so freely, it renders intelligible what 
 Burke says of the " parade of superiority" which the 
 Court faction were wont to assume over the exterior 
 Ministers.
 
 17CG.] DUKE OF RICHMOND'S JOURNAL. 349 
 
 EXTRACT FROM THE DUKE OF RICHMOND'S JOURNAL. 
 
 " Tuesday, June 17th, 176G. 
 " Heard that Lord Egmont was, on Thursday the 
 12th, at Mr. Kigby's, wlio said, that Lord Egmont 
 had talked of the present Administration as everybody 
 else does; meaning that he held them very cheap. 
 Mr. Rigby, after this, went out of town to Moore Park, 
 for some days, in his way to Woburn. If anything 
 had been concluded at this meeting, he would probably 
 have gone direct to Woburn. This agrees very well 
 with Lord Talbot's having been with the King on 
 Thursday the 12 th and Friday the 13 th for above an 
 hour each day, and particularly on Friday, the King's 
 looking flustered when we went in, which was directly 
 after Lord Talbot, for it is probable that he was dis- 
 pleased at the negociation not having succeeded. The 
 point, in all likelihood, was to engage the Bedfords, 
 without the Grenvilles, to join the Butes. This Lord 
 Egmont woidd wish, as his great dread is Pitt, and a 
 combination of Grenvilles. 
 
 " Upon giving a hint to Lord Kockingham and Mr. 
 Conway, that some such negociations had been on foot, 
 Lord Rockingham was for trying to get the Bedfords, 
 without the Grenvilles, to join us, and said that Pitt, 
 Grenvilles, and Butes together, even in administration, 
 could not stand such an union. Mr. Conway was for 
 getting more light into this transaction, and if it proved 
 true, to come to an explanation with the King, for to
 
 350 LORD HARDWICKE'S "MEMORIALL." [1760. 
 
 let things go on so was ridiculous. I was for offering 
 handsomely to take in several of Lord Bute's friends, 
 to make the King easy, for I do not fear letting them 
 have any places, in order to their assistance and the 
 King's countenance, provided they are not places of 
 Ministers, and that we keep them out of the Cabinet." 
 
 " Towards the end of this month of June," says Lord 
 Hardwicke's ' Memoriall,' " a matter came before us 
 which was of great importance, and the rock upon 
 which we split, or rather served as the match with 
 which the Chancellor was permitted to fire the mine 
 laid for the demolition of our weak Ministerial fabric. 
 
 " The Proclamation which issued in 1764, when the 
 Duke of Bedford Avas President, and Lord Hillsborough 
 at the Head of the Board of Trade, by which all the 
 laws of Great Britain were introduced at once into the 
 new acquisitions, had thrown the affairs of the Province 
 of Canada into a good deal of confusion. The natives 
 complained that their laws of property were overturned, 
 and new ones established, to the principles of which they 
 were as much strangers as the language in which the 
 decisions of the Judge were to be pronounced. Gover- 
 nor Murray had framed local ordonnances upon this 
 Proclamation, which the Board of Trade had reported 
 against, and things were in such a state that it was 
 evident some new regulations were necessary. The 
 papers relative to these disputes had, according to 
 custom, in the course of the winter been transmitted 
 from the Council Office to the Attorney and Solicitor
 
 [176G. DUKE OF RICHMOND'S JOURNAL. 351 
 
 General. They had (from the best information they 
 could collect) prepared a report which, before it went 
 in form to the Council, was to be considered by the 
 Cabinet. It is not necessary to enter further here into 
 the report, than by saying it was a plan for the Civil 
 Government of Quebec, the principal line of which was 
 to leave the natives to their old rights of property or 
 civil laws, and to temper the rigour of their criminal 
 code by the more equitable and generous meaning of 
 the English law. At our first meeting on this report, 
 Lord Chancellor declared his absolute dislike to it, 
 made several frivolous objections to particulars, and 
 was absolutely for doing nothing till we had a com- 
 plete code of the laws of Canada sent over, which was 
 postponing the whole business for a twelvemonth. His 
 Lordship took this opportunity to complain of some 
 trifling ill usage he had met with from the Secretaries 
 of State in the transmitting of papers; and, in short, 
 the meeting, which was at his house, broke up re infectd^ 
 and before another could be summoned, the Lord Chan- 
 cellor declared he would attend no more." 
 
 The next quotation from the Duke of Eichmond's 
 Journal, refers to the same Cabinet meeting. 
 
 " June 27, 1766. 
 
 " At a meeting at the Lord Chancellor's, to consider 
 further on the instructions to be sent to the Governor 
 of Canada, his Lordship was in a very ill humour 
 indeed. He said he disapproved entirely of the foun- 
 dation upon which they were planned, and, therefore.
 
 352 DUKE OF RICHMOND'S JOURNAL. [1766. 
 
 would have nothing to do with them ; that he had, 
 besides, never seen the papers which came from Canada, 
 and could give no information upon this matter; that he 
 doubted if it was legal for the King to empower the 
 Governor, with or without his Council, to establish 
 Courts of Judicature; that it was necessary to bring 
 matters of such weight before Parliament. To all this 
 Lord Dartmouth answered, that he imagined the powers 
 given by the King could not be disputed, as it was 
 founded on a similar practice in almost all the other 
 Colonies; and that it could not be illegal, since this 
 very commission to the Governor, under which he had 
 these powers, was under the Great Seal, which my Lord 
 Chancellor himself had affixed to it ; that what we were 
 now doing was only acting under that commission. Mr. 
 Murray* had executed his former instructions for ap- 
 pointing Courts of Judicature, and other matters, in a 
 way that was much disapproved of; we did not now 
 pretend to give fresh powers, but instructions how to 
 execute the former ones in a manner less exceptionable. 
 My Lord Chancellor could make no other reply to this, 
 than that he did not pretend to be answerable for all 
 
 * Lieut. -General Murray, Governor of Canada, uncle to the Duke 
 of Athol. In the " Church and King" riots of 1780, when there 
 was danger of the mob forcing their way into the House of Commons, 
 Murray thus addressed Lord George Gordon, who was sitting next him : 
 " If any one of your lawless followers enters, I shall consider rebel- 
 lion as begun, and will plunge my s^vord into your bosom as its pro- 
 moter." — Hugiies' Hist, of England, vol. iii. p. 24. — "He was a brave 
 and adventurous officer. When in command at Quebec, disdaining 
 to await a regular siege, he marched out with an inferior force, attack- 
 ed the French, and was defeated." — Walpole.
 
 1766.] DUKE OF RICHMOND'S JOURNAL. 353 
 
 he had set the Gres^ Seal to; that these things came 
 to him of course, and that he did not so much as read 
 or inquire about them ; and that he had at first, when 
 the Duke of Bedford sent the first instructions to Go- 
 vernor Murray, disapproved of the whole plan. It 
 being however agreed to read the instructions, the 
 Chancellor objected to several parts, — first, to the ap- 
 pointing Canadians being Roman Catholics, to act as 
 Justices of the Peace, or as Judges. He doubted 
 whether the Crown could give that power to Roman 
 Catholics, and whether penal laws did not extend to 
 Canada. 
 
 " 2ndly. He objected to appeals from the superior 
 Courts of Judicature to the Governor and Council. 
 He said they should be to the King in Council in 
 England. 
 
 " His Lordship also said that he thought the old 
 Canadian laws were to subsist till, by the aathority of 
 Parliament, they were altered. To this it was objected 
 to him that the King had issued a proclamation, the 
 day of in which he promised all his 
 
 new subjects the benefits and advantages of the English 
 law; to which his Lordship replied, 'I know that, and 
 a very silly proclamation it was.' 
 
 " After much talk upon this aff'air, the Chancellor 
 concluded with saying, that he disapproved of the prin- 
 ciple upon which the plan was formed ; that he had 
 always done so, and, therefore, could and would give 
 no advice about it. 
 
 " I represented to his Lordship, the diflSculties we 
 
 VOL. L A A
 
 354 DUKE OF RTCnMOND'S JOURNAL. [ 17(50. 
 
 laboured under ; that the methodyn which Murray liad 
 executed his instructions was disapproved by everybody 
 (to which he agreed) ; that if we did nothing, we, in 
 fact, confirmed everything Murray had done, and those 
 very courts which he had established ; that in altering, 
 we wished much to receive his Lordship's advice and 
 assistance, and to do what was really for the best ; that if 
 his Lordship would point out what was wrong or illegal, 
 and advise us what was better, we would certainly pay 
 the utmost attention to it; that I had, in particular, 
 refused to sign the instructions — first, without having 
 his approbation of them, and, afterwards, when I heard 
 he disapproved ; that every attention had been showed 
 in appointing councils at the times that might be most 
 convenient to him, and that Lord Dartmouth had 
 waited upon him with all the papers, now material, 
 and the instructions previous to this meeting, in order 
 to give him time to consider of them, and to make such 
 alterations as he thought proper ; that it was, therefore, 
 very hard to object so far, as to say that parts were, 
 perhaps, not strictly legal, and thereby render it im- 
 possible for us to venture to do anything against such 
 an opinion ; and, at the same time, to refuse telling us 
 what was wrong, or advise us how to proceed ; that if 
 further information was necessary, his Lordship should 
 have every paper he could wish, and that if any neglect 
 of that sort had happened, it was certainly not de- 
 signed, and, therefore, I hoped he would not, for a 
 reason of that kind, refuse his assistance and prevent 
 our doing some real service to that Colony.
 
 17(56.] LORD ITARDWICKE TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. 355 
 
 " His Lordship's answer was very short. That he 
 disapproved of the whole, and would give no advice ; 
 that it was true, Lord Dartmouth had lately been with 
 him and explained the whole, and that he would do him 
 the justice to say, that the instructions upon this plan, 
 such as it is, were very well drawn up, but that he 
 could not assent to the principle upon which they were 
 founded; that, though he had now had information, he 
 had never seen the first letters which were circulated in 
 September or November last, and that now papers came 
 to him so irregularly and so late, that he could not read 
 them in time, to consider matters before they came to 
 Council; that it was ridiculous to expect him to give 
 his opinion upon matters he was not prepared upon, 
 and, therefore, he declared he would attend Councils 
 no more. 
 
 " Other matters being taken into consideration, they 
 were determined on, as appears by the minute of that 
 day." 
 
 LORD HARDWICKE TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. 
 
 " St. James Square, June 30th, 1766. 
 " I PROFESS myself to be, in many respects, a very 
 incompetent judge of what is proper to be done in 
 Canada, but as far as I am master of my brother's 
 report, I think he struck out, or pretty nearly so, the 
 true medium; and I understand from him, that the 
 Canadians liked our free and impartial forms of judica- 
 ture, and only desired to be left to their old laws and 
 
 A A 2
 
 356 LORD HARDWICKE TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. [1760. 
 
 customs for private property. I doubt our great 
 lawyer * will not agree in our ideas, and perhaps the 
 matter may now be postponed till Governor Murray's 
 arrival, who can give further lights. 
 
 " Your Lordship will doubtless do well to talk to my 
 brother upon it, though, having made the report, he is 
 functus officio. Lord Winchilsea and Lord Dartmouth 
 should likewise be taken along in the aifair. 
 
 " We are packed up and ready to set out for Bed- 
 fordshire, but as the weather is so bad, we shall not 
 move till Thursday, which will give me an opportunity 
 of paying my duty at the levee on Wednesday, and of 
 receiving any commands which your Lordship and the 
 rest of the King's servants may have for me. 
 
 " I thank your Lordship for the Boston intelligence. 
 I hope, besides rejoicings and healths (the latter of 
 which are mostly to the Great Commoner), we shall 
 have the more substantial returns of duty and acknow- 
 ledgment from the Colony Assemblies. Our friend 
 Tom* was very cross indeed, and would neither lead 
 nor drive." 
 
 * " Tom Tilbury," i. e. the Chancellor, Lord Northington. In 
 several letters to and from my grandfather, I find this nickname 
 applied to Lord Northington. The Hon. John Yorke, writing to his 
 brother Lord Hardwicke, on the 19th of July, 1770, " I see by the 
 papers that old Tilbury has hobbled up to town again ; I suppose he 
 has been sent for to help forward some unsatisfactory change, and 
 endeavour to divide the opposition. I always expect some mischief 
 when I hear of the interposition of that sorry fellow."
 
 176C.] LORD ROCKINGHAM TO HON. C YORKE. 357 
 
 THE MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHAM TO THE HON. C. YORKE. 
 
 " Dear Sir " Grosvenor Square, July y* 1st. 
 
 " I should be glad to know if we could contrive to 
 meet to-morrow. I think I could most conveniently to 
 myself call at your house after Court, which would 
 be about three o'clock. One business I have with you 
 is relative to the Quebec affair." 
 
 THE MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHAM TO THE HON. C. YORKE. 
 
 " Grosvenor Square, Friday, 12 o'clock, 
 "Dear Sir, "July ye 4th, 1 766. 
 
 " I intended to have wrote to you yesterday, to ex- 
 plain to you the note you would receive from the Duke 
 of Eichmond, desiring to see you at his house this 
 evening. 
 
 " At the Cabinet Meeting on Wednesday night (where 
 the Chancellor was not), it seemed to be the desire and 
 intention of all those present, that if you and the So- 
 licitor-General would come to a private meeting at the 
 Duke of Richmond's to-night, we might settle the mat- 
 ter, as well as the circumstances will allow; and that 
 your assistance, both in law and in the prudential con- 
 sideration of the Chancellor's differing, would be of the 
 utmost service, and that, probably, we may then do 
 some good in this matter. 
 
 " I hope to hear that you will come, and am ever, 
 
 "Dear Sir, &c., 
 
 " Rockingham."
 
 358 LORD BUTE'S SUSPECTED [l766. 
 
 The next entry in the Duke of Richmond's Journal is 
 on July 6th, 1766. 
 
 " When I came to the Court, after the drawing- 
 room, I found the Chancellor had just mentioned to 
 Lord Winchilsea, before he went into the King's 
 closet, his dissatisfaction, and that he would attend 
 Councils no longer. Mr. Conway and Mr. Dowdeswell 
 had also begun to talk with the Chancellor, but were 
 interrupted. When he came out, he went away with- 
 out speaking scarce a word to anybody. Lord Rock- 
 ingham went in best." 
 
 THE MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHAM TO THE HON. CHARLES 
 
 YORKE. 
 
 " Grosvenor Square, Sunday Evening, 9 o'clock, 
 
 " Dear Sir, . July y^ 6th, 1766. 
 
 " I called at your house this evening, as I am anxious 
 to communicate to you a political event of importance 
 which happened this morning. I will delay mentioning 
 what it is till I see you, which I beg may be to-morrow 
 morning." 
 
 There was, perhaps, no subject in the last century 
 on which a greater unanimity of opinion prevailed, than 
 that Lord Bute continued to act as the King's secret 
 adviser several years after he had ostensibly withdrawn 
 from all participation in pul)lic affairs ; on the other 
 hand, the disbelief of the existence of any such secret in- 
 terference is equally as strong and universal in the pre-
 
 17G6.] INTERFERENCE IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS. 359 
 
 sent times. Writers differing upon almost every other 
 subject agree upon this point, and have backed their 
 opinions by various anecdotes. Lord Brougham says, 
 "the King had never any kind of communication with 
 him (Lord Bute) directly or indirectly; nor did he ever 
 see him but once ; and the history of that occurrence sud- 
 denly puts the greater part of the stories to flight which 
 are current upon this subject. His aunt, the Princess 
 Amelia, had some plan of again bringing the two 
 parties together; and on a day when George the Third 
 was to pay her a visit at her villa at Gunnersbury, 
 near Brentford, she invited Lord Bute, whom she pro- 
 bably had never informed of her foolish intentions. 
 He was walking in the garden when she took her 
 nephew down stairs to view it, saying there was no 
 one there but an old friend of his, whom he had not 
 seen for some years. He had not time to ask who 
 it might be, when on entering the garden he saw his 
 former minister walking up an alley. The King in- 
 stantly turned back to avoid him, reproved the silly 
 old woman sharply, and declared that, if ever she re- 
 peated such experiments, she had seen him for the last 
 time in her house."* 
 
 Li a letter addressed to the newspapers in October, 
 1778, Lord Mountstuart said, "He, Lord Bute, does 
 
 * Lord Brougham's Historical Sketches of Statesmen who flourish- 
 ed in the reign of George the Third, vol. i. page 48-9. In support of 
 Lord Brougham's hypothesis, see Adolphus' History of England, i. 
 108-9. Hughes' History of England, i. 137. Edinburgh Review, 
 cxli. Oi. Quarterly Kcviovv, oxxxi.
 
 360 LORD BUTE'S SUSPECTED [l76G. 
 
 authorize me to say, that he declares upon his solemn 
 word of honour that he has not had the honour of 
 waiting upon His Majesty but at his levee or draw- 
 ing-room; nor has he presumed to offer an advice or 
 opinion concerning the disposition of offices, or the 
 conduct of measures either directly or indirectly, by 
 himself or any other, from the time when the late 
 Duke of Cumberland was consulted in the arrangement 
 of a ministry, 1765, to the present hour." 
 
 In addition to the evidence already published is 
 the following extract of a letter written soon after the 
 formation of the Chatham ministry. 
 
 THE EARL OF BUTE TO THE EARL OF HARDWICKE. 
 
 " London, July 26th, 1766. 
 
 " I KNOW as little, save from newspapers, of the pre- 
 sent busy scene, as I do of transactions in Persia, and 
 yet am destined for ever to be a double uneasiness, 
 that of incapacity to serve those I love, and yet to 
 be continually censured for every public transaction, 
 though totally retired from courts and public business. 
 In this private station, however, I cease not to be with 
 the greatest regard, 
 
 " Your Lordship's most humble obedient servant, 
 
 "Bute." 
 
 Without offering any opinion of my own either on 
 the belief of the last or the present century, I will 
 content myself with calling the attention of the reader
 
 176(5.] INTERFERENCE IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS. 361 
 
 to the following extract from the Duke of Richmond's 
 Journal, and that which will occur a few pages further 
 on under date of the 12th of July. 
 
 " 1766, Monday, July 7th. 
 
 " I WAS told that Lord Bute went this day about 
 noon to his own house at Kew. He did not go to the 
 common road over the bridge, but came by the river 
 side in his coach; from his own garden he crossed 
 alone to that of the Princess of Wales's at Kew. The 
 Kiner also about the same time went to the Princess of 
 Wales's at Kew, and stayed there two hours. 'Tis 
 remarkable, that 'tis said that the Princess was not 
 herself then at Kew, so that this was not accidental, 
 but evidently a meeting of the King's with Lord Bute, 
 settled so before-hand. The Duke of York, who had 
 been the preceding evening for two hours with Mr. 
 Stone, was this day at Richmond with the King." 
 
 On this same day likewise Walpole records that 
 "His Majesty, with the most frank indifference, and 
 without even thanking them (the Ministers) for their 
 services, and for having undertaken the administra- 
 tion at his own earnest solicitation, acquainted them 
 severally that he had sent for Mr. Pitt."* 
 
 Under date of Tuesday the 8th of July, the Duke of 
 Richmond writes : "No material occurrence;" but on the 
 same day he says in a letter to Lord Rockingham : — 
 
 * Walpole's George the Third, ii. 337.
 
 362 DUKE OF RICHMOND'S JOURNAL. [l7GG. 
 
 " I have intelligence that Pitt has been sent to. It 
 comes to me in a very extraordinary way, and from 
 one I should give no credit to, if he had not told all 
 that the Chancellor had said to the King, and almost 
 in the same words His Majesty used to me, and this 
 on Sunday evening. As he is so right in one instance, 
 'tis possible he may be so in the other, and he speaks 
 to it with equal certainty. 
 
 " If this is so, is it not possible that the Duke of 
 York in his late journey to Bath and Bristol, and Lord 
 Egmont in his into Somersetshire, may have had some 
 interview with Mr. Pitt? 
 
 *' I confess I think my information to be true, but 
 think you had better not communicate to any one but 
 Mr. Conway, for if it is known, and that Mr. Con- 
 way's sentiments get among our friends, it will be a 
 race among them who shall go first to Mr. Pitt." 
 
 THE DUKE or KICHMOND'S JOURNAL. 
 
 " 1766. Wednesday, July 9. 
 " The Duke of Newcastle, Lord Rockingham, General 
 Conway, and I, met at Richmond House. 
 
 " Thursday, July 10. 
 " We were all at the drawing-room. The King and 
 the Queen were both exceedingly civil, even affectedly 
 so." 
 
 In a letter of the same date, Horace Walpole in- 
 forms George Montague that the outlines of a new
 
 1766.] LORD HARDWICKE TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. 303 
 
 administration are formed, and thus prophetically speaks 
 of Lord Eockingham's successor and his government. 
 
 " The plan will probably be to pick and cull from 
 all quarters, and break all parties as much as possible. 
 From this moment I date the wane of Mr. Pitt's glory : 
 he will want the thorough bass of drums and trumpets 
 and is not made for peace. The dismission of a most 
 popular administration, a leaven of Bute, whom too he 
 can never trust, and the numbers he will discontent 
 will be considerable objects against him." 
 
 THE EARL OF HARDWICKE TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. 
 
 " July 11, 1766. 
 
 " I HAVE learned from the various resolutions of these 
 times nil admirm-i ; but I cannot say I expected this 
 blow-up quite so soon. It is indifferent to me whether 
 Lord Chancellor acted in his representation to the King 
 entirely from himself or as an instrument for others, 
 but I am sure his Lordship's very wrong understand- 
 ing and perverse temper are one main weakness of the 
 Administration. My poor opinion. If the King has 
 sent for Mr. Pitt it is to put his affairs for the present 
 entirely in his hands — as he must be sensible that the 
 Great Commoner always expects implicit acquiescence 
 in his hands. He will save everybody the trou])le of 
 thinking, which is a great convenience, and I shall have 
 my full share of it. 
 
 *' I suppose you know by this time whence the source 
 of this sudden resolution to send for Mr. Pitt has 
 arisen. I presume from that quarter, which has and
 
 364 DUKE OF RICHMOND'S JOURNAL. [1766. 
 
 will have the real interior influence and weight which 
 hurried out the last Ministers, and will the present, let 
 the outward instruments and actors change ever so 
 often. 
 
 " P.S. I presume the Lord Chancellor was resolved 
 to shake off this Ministry when he showed so much ill 
 humour at his own house." 
 
 THE DUKE OF RICHMOND'S JOURNAL. 
 
 "1766, Friday, July 11. 
 
 " The report at the levee was that Mr. Pitt had been 
 an hour with the King in the morning, but that was 
 not so. He did not come to town till near one o'clock, 
 and had come that morning from Maidenhead or Slough. 
 The King continued exceedingly civil in the closet. 
 
 " In the evening Mr. Pitt went to the Chancellor, 
 and was several hours with him." 
 
 THE EARL OF HARDWICKE TO THE HON. C. YORKE. 
 
 " Dear Brother, " Wrest, July the loth, i766. 
 
 " I received a letter this morning by express from 
 Lord Kockingham, with an account of what has lately 
 passed in the closet, and the King's having sent for Mr. 
 Pitt, desiring me at the same time to come immediately 
 to town. I presume Lord Chancellor has taken his 
 part in concert with Leicester House 
 
 " I have professed to Lord Rockingham my willingness 
 to come up when matters are ripe ; but as his Lordship 
 seems to think we should wait a little, I do not see the
 
 176G.] LORD IIARDWICKE TO HON. C. YORKE. 365 
 
 necessity of setting out immediately^ but will be ready 
 to move at the next summons from him or you. 
 
 " The King surely intends to put himself entirely 
 into Mr. Pitt's hands, and he as surely means to break 
 up the present Administration. If he makes a better, 
 I for one shall not be sorry for it. . . . 
 
 " Let me have a line by the return of the messenger, 
 and keep me from being sent for, unless it is absolutely 
 necessary. 
 
 " I am very willing to make my bow, and to be eased 
 the trouble of thinking by the Great Commoner, but 
 will certainly bark at him, and show my teeth, if he 
 means to use you ill. 
 
 "P.S. — I presume Lord Chancellor had taken his 
 resolution at our first meeting, and the report is only 
 a pretence." 
 
 FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME. 
 
 " Dear Brother, " Wrest, July the loth, i766. 
 
 " I shall postpone my resolution of coming up to 
 town till I receive Lord Rockingham's answer and yours 
 to my letters of this morning, and the rather as I find 
 you agree with me in opinion, that there is no occasion 
 to be in such a hurry. Indeed, the afiliir will soon be 
 over, if the Great Commoner has carte blanche^ and we 
 shall none of us have any counsel to take but Avhat we 
 may give ourselves, without stirring out of our elbow 
 chairs. If the affair draws into negociation, I shall be 
 in time by coming up on Monday or Tuesday, and I
 
 3GG LORD HARDWICKE TO HON. C. YORKE. [l760. 
 
 would willingly have you at leisure to consult with, 
 and not called off by the aliena negotia. 
 
 " I am such a bit of a Minister, as to have no stake 
 worth contending for in the game ; but I shall interest 
 myself for ray friends, as if it was propria causa. At 
 all events, I shall beg to be excused from sitting at 
 council again with the Noble Lord who has brought 
 this charge against his colleagues, and who would not 
 say a word when it was 7'es Integra on the Duke of 
 Grafton's resignation. That the bottom wants widen- 
 ing and strengthening is certain, and I have told Lord 
 Rockingham so from the beginning, as well as that I 
 thought the King had no personal confidence in his 
 Ministers. I wish he does not make it impracticable 
 for anybody to serve him: court intrigue will throw 
 the ablest Minister off his bias and embarrass his 
 operations, when he thinks himself the most secure. 
 " I am, dear Brother, yours sincerely, &c., 
 
 *' Hardwicke. 
 
 " P.S. The Ministers may certainly find out how far 
 Leicester House is at the bottom of this. Lord Bute 
 resides as little at Luton, and is always hovering be- 
 tween town and country. He was not at his Terre on 
 Monday last, but expected soon. Lord Egmont has 
 behaved very civilly at our meetings ; but do you re- 
 member what I wrote you word of his discourse to me 
 at Court?" 
 
 In a letter of the same date Lord Hardwicke says to 
 Lord Rockingham : —
 
 17(JG.] LORD HARDWICKE TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. 3C7 
 
 " I could have wislicd His Majesty had been a little 
 pressed upon the reasons which determined him to send 
 for Mr. Pitt just now, after letting slip so many much 
 more proper occasions, particularly that of the Duke 
 of Grafton's resignation; and declaring so often, that 
 he thought such a step would be personally disgraceful 
 to himself, and that he had twice before acted below his 
 dignity, in seeing Mr. Pitt without knowing what he 
 would propose. 
 
 "I am surprised your Lordship has not more Court 
 intelligence about the motions and intrigues of Carlton 
 House, and the constant undermining practices of the 
 Scotch Thane, who resides as little in the country this 
 summer as he has done for the two last, and continues 
 to divide his time between Luton and South Audley 
 Street. 
 
 "Whoever His Majesty thinks proper to employ, it is 
 highly necessary he should give them his confidence and 
 his authority too, or they will never be able to serve him 
 effectually. If they are unworthy of the one or abuse 
 the other, the sooner he parts with them the better. 
 We have been told that annual parliaments would make 
 annual ministries ; but we see the latter can be brought 
 about, though we have not the inconvenience of the 
 former.'^ 
 
 Walpole writes also on the same day to Sir Horace 
 Mann : — 
 
 " The late Ministers — I talk of those who were in 
 office three days ago — stuck to their text; that is,
 
 868 DUKE OF RICHMOND'S JOURNAL. [l7CG. 
 
 would not bow the knee to the idol that lurks behind 
 the veil of the sanctuary. On Sunday last without 
 any communication to the Ministers, the Chancellor, 
 who began to smell a storm, and has probably bargained 
 for beginning it, told the King that he would resign." 
 
 THE DUKE OF RICHMOND'S JOURNAL. 
 
 " 1766, Saturday, July 1 2th. 
 " Mr. Pitt went at eleven from Captain Hood's in 
 Harley Street* to Richmond; he arrived at noon and 
 stayed till twenty minutes past four. The King at 
 about eleven went to the Princess at Kew, although she 
 was not there. At about one, Lord Bute was seen 
 coming from Ealing by a by-road, so that 'tis probable 
 he had again been to meet His Majesty at Kew. Lord 
 Bute had been at Luton between the Monday and the 
 Saturday ; and Martin, who came to London from thence 
 on Thursday or Friday, knew nothing of Mr. Pitt's 
 being sent for ; but that proves only, that Lord Bute 
 did not tell it him; it seems clear, though, that he knew 
 it by these two meetings with the King, and doubtless 
 he advised it." 
 
 * MR. PITT TO LADY CHATHAM. 
 
 "July 12, 1766. 
 " I WRITE this hasty line to my dearest life from the house of the 
 Hoods, where I am perfectly well lodged. I 'm, upon honour, much 
 better to-day ; have been at Richmond, and returned to a five o'clock 
 chicken, which, had you been with me, would have been a happy 
 banquet." — Chatham Correspondence, ii. 439.
 
 1760.] DUKE OF RICHMOND'S JOURNAL. 369 
 
 The following paragrapii is lipou a detached slip of 
 paper: it is not written by the Duke, and is ap- 
 parently in the hand-writing of an uneducated person. 
 
 " Saturday, July 1 2th. 
 
 " General Carpenter came at half-past seven o'clock 
 to ride with His Majesty. A little before eight a 
 person came on horseback in great haste, which I took 
 to be some servant out of livery, and since believe to 
 be one of Mr. Pitt's servants. A little after eight His 
 Majesty rode out, and returned about nine. About 
 eleven His Majesty went to Kew ; I followed ; he re- 
 turned at twelve; two gentlemen came (one an officer) 
 to represent to His Majesty the suffering of persons in 
 North America, with a plan of an instrument which 
 they make use of to torment them when in prison. At 
 one o'clock Mr. Pitt came, and returned at twenty 
 minutes past four. At six their Majesties went out 
 in an open chaise to take the air, and returned at 
 half-past eight. This morning waited till nine o'clock, 
 when the light horseman came. Nothing material." 
 
 " Sunday, July lath. 
 
 " The King was very civil to everybody at his draw- 
 ing-room. The Queen was not there. I went afterwards 
 into the closet to ask when Monsieur Durand* might 
 have an audience to deliver letters from the French 
 Queen, in answer to His Majesty when he recalled me 
 from the French Embassy. The King appointed the 
 
 * The French Ambassador. 
 VOL. I. B B
 
 370 DISMISSAL OF THE ROCKINGHAM MINISTRY. [1760. 
 
 Wednesday following, and then entered into a long con- 
 versation with me on several indifferent points." 
 
 A few days after the last entry in the Duke of 
 Richmond's journal, the Eockingham Ministry had 
 ceased to exist, and I cannot resist inserting Burke's 
 masterly summary of their conduct during their short 
 tenure of office. 
 
 " They treated their Sovereign with decency, with 
 reverence. They discountenanced, and it is hoped for 
 ever abolished, the dangerous and unconstitutional 
 practice of removing military officers for their votes 
 in Parliament. They firmly adhered to those friends 
 of liberty, who had run all hazards in its cause, and 
 provided for them in preference to every other claim. 
 
 " With the Earl of Bute they had no personal con- 
 nexion, no correspondence of councils. They neither 
 courted him nor persecuted him. They practised no 
 corruption, nor were they even suspected of it. They 
 sold no offices. They obtained no reversions or pen- 
 sions, either coming in or going out, for themselves, 
 their families, or their dependents. 
 
 " In the prosecution of their measures they were 
 traversed by an opposition of a new and singular 
 character; an opposition of placemen and pensioners. 
 They were supported by the confidence of the nation. 
 And having held their offices under many difficulties 
 and discouragements, they left them at the express 
 command, as they had accepted them at the earnest 
 request of their lloyal master."
 
 FIELD MAllSHAL 
 HENRY SEYMOUR CONWAY. 
 
 Since this Work went to the press, I have been favoured 
 by a friend with some copious extracts from a manuscript 
 collection of Letters addressed by Marshal Conway to Horace 
 Walpole, originally made with a view to publication in a 
 Memoir of the Marshal, then in contemplation, but which was 
 subsequently abandoned. As a distinguished contemporary, 
 and a friend of Lord Rockingham, Conway is entitled to a 
 more full notice than I had been able to bestow in my text ; 
 and my silence was only caused by the scarcity of the mate- 
 rials respecting his private life, that are to be found either in 
 contemporary works, or in the manuscript repositories to which 
 I had access. I am glad therefore to supply this deficiency, 
 especially as the letters are not without value, illustrating, as 
 they do, the manners of the period at which they were 
 written. 
 
 May, 1740. 
 
 " We went yesterday into mourning for his Majesty the 
 King of Prussia. The present King has written a letter to 
 M. Algarotti to this effect: ' Venez, mon cher Algarotti : 
 mon sort est change. Je puis a present jouer de mes amis — 
 me ne foit long temps perdre ce plaisir. .Pai de Timportance 
 a vous revoir — Frederick Roi."" All this is mighty pretty 
 
 B B 2
 
 372 FIELD MARSHAL H. S. CONWAY. [l740. 
 
 and romantic, and one would thinly that they had been friends 
 from the cradle, for Kings do not condescend to these fami- 
 liarities with subjects but upon extraordinary occasions ; but 
 behold all this friendship is the growth of one week that 
 Algarotti staid with him on his road to Petersburg with Lord 
 Baltimore. 
 
 " I must send you Admiral ' Hosier's Ghost,' though it 
 should stand you in half-a-crown, because all the world is cry- 
 ing out about it in some way or other. The patriots cry it up, 
 and the courtiers cry it down, and the hawkers cry it up and 
 down till they make one deaf. For my part I had rather hear 
 your opinion about it than tell my own ; but I have not the 
 patience to wait ; so must tell you that I like it extremely, and 
 think it nn'ghty solemn and mighty poetical. Several men of 
 sense that I have seen are of the same opinion ; judges, but 
 not party-mad. Now, as I take you for a very indifferent 
 politician (you understand me, I mean, indifferent in party 
 matters), and think you far from an indifferent judge, I hope 
 you will join with us. You know the history of his lying a 
 long time before Porto Bello and losing almost all his crew." 
 
 Walpole acknowledges this in a letter of 9th of July, 1740. 
 
 " Dear Horry, " Thursday, Aug. 6, 1740. 
 
 " You cannot imagine how happy you make me with that 
 charming old stock of friendship that you say you have kept in 
 lavender for me. It is a treasure that I value more than I can 
 express, and without any unreasonable doubts of your grati- 
 tude or constancy, I would have given the world to have 
 insured it when we parted ; but aftection would be no longer 
 affection, if it was not attended with some anxiety — if it ceased 
 to be that res solliciti plena tivioris. How did I know but that 
 in these cursed piratical times I might have been robbed of 
 it .^ and what redress could I have had ? To think of making
 
 1740.] FIELD MARSHAL IL S. CONWAY. 373 
 
 new ones instead of it, would be like that old Roman logger- 
 head whom Velleius makes honourable mention of, who threat- 
 ened the people, if they lost the old Coi-inthian statues, that 
 they should find new ones in their stead. Indeed, I must have 
 recourse to better times than these, if I would find another 
 friendship worthy to succeed it. I won't make you any com- 
 pliments : it is none, God knows, to tell you that I love you, 
 if possible, more than ever, and can forgive you anything but 
 doubting of it. 
 
 So you see, my dear Horry, I am ready for your coming. 
 You shall find your old apartment in my heart in the 
 best order in the world to receive you. It has no need 
 of dusting or brushing up, I assure you ; I hope you meant 
 no such thing by saying you wrote your last only to an- 
 nounce yourself! But you require a history of the present 
 times of me ; indeed, you apply to the very worst person 
 in the world. I know nothing of politics, imprimis, which is 
 a great article in modern history. As to scandal and common 
 news, to be sure I hear it as others do now and then, but then 
 I am plenus rimarum ; it comes in at one ear literally, and out 
 at the other. I have no sort of retention, and but very 
 moderate intelligence of late, for I see nobody. Would you 
 believe it, Horry, I have been hithei'to in this dreary city all 
 this live-long summer ? But I can't bear summer people, and 
 so I live a good deal alone. I now and then go to Chelsea, 
 as you may suppose, once a week or so ; then I have a meta- 
 morphosed quondam country sister whom you have heard of; 
 this, with two or three dropping-in acquaintance, makes my 
 world. So if you have a mind to hear the history of that, I 
 can give it you, but for the great one I know nothing of it. 
 As to myself I have a thousand idle hours, which, with 
 some small study and a thousand idle amusements, pass as 
 fast at least as I wish them to do. And*, dear Horry, I have
 
 374 FIELD MARSHAL H. S. CONWAY. [1740. 
 
 at last begun to draw ; you will not be sorry to hear that I 
 shall confine myself chiefly or rather entirely to perspective, 
 views of buildings, landscapes, &c. I feel as if I should take 
 to it mightily, and only regret having begun so late. I have 
 a notion Lens is dead, so I have taken a good old German, 
 who was recommended to me by my master of mathematics 
 (for you must know I am in the midst of that and fortifications). 
 He seems to be good at that kind of drawing, and has done 
 some views of parts of London, which I really think pretty. 
 It must be owned he smells a good deal of tobacco, but time 
 will get the better of that I hope. He diverts me by talking 
 like my Lord Grantham, and is as solemn as he can be for 
 his life. I almost wish I had staid for your advice, but 
 now the affair is done I hope for your approbation. As 
 to my performances, which are as yet only two small land- 
 scapes, if you will take my opinion, they are moderate for 
 the first, neither very bad nor good, but nothing tending 
 towards a genius ; so I must depend upon time and my old 
 German's instructions, and yours when you come over, which 
 I beg you will do instantly. What should you do there ? 
 You hate France, and England loves you. As for your loving 
 it, I want to know how that stands, but I am sure it will 
 divert you when you come, it is a pleasant animal ; one may 
 laugh at it as much as one will, but if one grows grave there 
 is no living here. 
 
 " Your ballad is extremely pretty, and I think you have 
 done it great injury to put it up in that halfpenny form, 
 with such a title and a frontispiece that I could have done 
 myself. But it is hard to plague you with so tedious a letter, 
 and not relieve you with one paragraph of news. Here is a 
 paper just come in, I shall read it, and if I can find anything 
 for you, yon shall have it. Nothing but foreign news. Letters 
 from the Hague and- Paris a la main, but they say that you
 
 1740.] FIELD MARSHAL II. S. CONWAY. 375 
 
 French are going to declare war against us immediately, and 
 are marching your troops towards our Electoral dominion. 
 It does not signify ; 1 am sure the war must be general. The 
 Body Politic of Europe is in strange disorder, and a great 
 deal of bad blood must be let out before it can possibly come 
 to itself again, so the sooner the better. 
 
 " There has been an earthquake at Naples, and a storm of 
 hail at Geneva, according to custom ; and the Turkish 
 Ambassador at Petersburgh made a good figure on horseback, 
 though he is but a short, slender man, about sixty years of 
 
 age. This, with the marriage of a great silk-dyer to Miss , 
 
 a young lady of great beauty, merit, and fortune, and the 
 death of an eminent distiller in Cornhill, is all that I find worth 
 your notice. Upon Lord Augustus's death there has been a 
 sort of negociatio]! about my coming in for Thetford, but I 
 don't know what will come of it. I am very easy about the 
 event of it, thanks to Jupiter, and can leave it to him without 
 the least pain. Adieu, dear Horry. Service to Gray." 
 
 " Monday, Oct. 26, 1740. 
 " Look here, Horry, here is just such a bit of paper as you 
 wrote to me upon, and if I can help it I won't write a word 
 more upon it. I have just written to Selwyn, and told him 
 that I had received your note and would answer it soon ; but 
 it is now come into my head to do it this minute, that I may 
 scold you for the shortness of your last, before my resentment 
 is cooled, for you know I am soon appeased. Indeed, Horry, 
 if one did not love you better than anybody, and you did not 
 write better than other people, one could never forgive you ; 
 but I forgot, those are the very reasons why I should be the 
 most angry with you. So, know that nothing but a vehement 
 long letter can ever make it up betwixt us. I must tell you, 
 too, that you must write it soon, for we have fixed our journey
 
 376 FIELD MARSHAL H. S. CONWAY. [l740. 
 
 for this day fortnight, and T feel as if I should like to meet 
 upon the best terms imaginable with you. For, to say the truth, 
 (don't tell Horry Walpole of it) I long to see you ; indeed, I 
 heartily wish I had been at the unpacking of your virlii, for I 
 love to see pretty things, though I don"'t understand them ; and 
 for your Tiberius, Vespasian, and Octavia, I honour them ; 
 and most obsequiously kiss their hands, if they have any. 
 What closet have you fitted up ? Are you in your old apart- 
 ment ; or is it the other charming green closet ? Pray tell 
 Mrs. Le Neve I like her bouts rimes much, and should be glad 
 to hear from her the true history of 'Quoties, Domine ?'' Have 
 you heard anything of the duel between Winnington and 
 Augustus Townshend ? It is charming ! but don't say anything 
 of it from me if you have not done so, because Selvvyn told 
 me of it, and bid me not to let it go out of the family, of 
 which family I reckon you are. 
 
 " 1 hear his Majesty is come over full of his Highnesses 
 treaty, and that he expects great applause for it from the 
 Parliament. It is whispered too that he is like to be disap- 
 pointed. Have you seen Lord Boiingbroke's pamphlet ? 
 What do you think of it ? You are or ought to be a politi- 
 cian ; but for me I trouble myself with no such thing. Have 
 you seen or heard anything about the Opera ^ I believe it is 
 too late for you to subscribe now, but I hope you intend 
 to go there very often. You must know I am a Director. 
 A Director ! well, I give you leave to make what reflexions 
 you please upon me ; but don't say a word, for I am now 
 trying to get my name out. Was there ever such an oaf 
 in the world .? Do scold me, I beseech you, Horry, for that 
 will be really some punishment to me. I may be ruined too, 
 for what I know, and forced to elope some fair evening. 
 You will hear nothing of me till you see my name in the paper 
 for a bankrupt, and a description of my person. What
 
 1741.J FIELD MARSHAL II. S. CONWAY. 377 
 
 do you tliluk we do with ourselves here ? We breakfast to- 
 gether, then part commonly and remain in our respective ' 
 apartments till dinner, unless the day serves for walking ; but 
 of those we have very few, and those few we make fewer by 
 our little inclination to walk ; the country is so dirty and so 
 dismal. At four we dine, and after dinner read some stupid 
 book till supper, for we have a tolerably learned library 
 here, but the worst for entertainment that ever was. All 
 this is melancholy enough ; but we shall see you in a fort- 
 night, my dear Horry, and that makes everything sup])ort- 
 able. Adieu ! my compliments to all your house. So you 
 cannot bear Mrs. Woffington ; yet all the town is in love with 
 her. To say the truth, I am glad to find somebody to keep 
 me in countenance, for I think she is an impudent, Irish- 
 faced girl. 
 
 " Jan. 19th, 1741. 
 " Shall we never see you, dear Horry ? Sure Florence 
 must have some strange enchanting power, some hidden 
 charms that we are not acquainted with ! Are you in love 
 there, or what is it ? If 1 don't hear you are removed before 
 this gets to you, I shall despair of seeing you. If our spring 
 cannot invite you here, and your flaming summer drive you 
 from Italy, 1 shall give you over. But now is the time that 
 young Englishmen come like herrings in shoals from all parts 
 of the world. A new. scene is opening, where everybody will 
 crowd either as actors or spectators. ^V'hat swarms to see 
 the new play ! or rather the old farce acted by a new set of 
 players. Whichever I am, it would not be worth my while 
 to come five miles I'or it ; I shall be so indifFerent a spectator, 
 or, if you will, so indifierent an actor, or rather no actor at all. 
 I shall, in all probability, play no other part than that of a 
 mute, and only help to crowd the stage, and keep those warm 
 who play greater roles. I want much to know what you
 
 378 FIELD MARSHAL H. S. CONWAY. [1741. 
 
 think of all this, and if you feel a fear, or how ? I own I feel 
 as if I had rather be out of the scrape, and yet it is my own 
 fault if I am in it. But I am like those people who run into 
 a quarrel out of curiosity, and often get a black eye or a 
 broken head for their pains. Poor Sir Robert is to lose his 
 head immediately as they say, about which he seems to trou- 
 ble his head very little ; but I must tell you a good thing of 
 Lady Thanefs before I go any further. Lord Bateman told 
 her at the Bath that he had Sir Robert's head in his pocket. 
 ' Are you sure of it ? '' says she. — ' Nothing surer.' — ' Why, 
 then,' says she, ' you cannot possibly do so well as to put it on 
 your shoulders.' On Wednesday I think they bring on a 
 motion to remove him into the House of Lords ; then there 
 comes the Place Bill, and God knows what besides, that will 
 quite ruin him. This is the whole extent of my politics. I 
 have no more time, or else I should talk to you a little more. 
 Service to Gray. The Conwayhood salute you." 
 
 '■'■ Dear Horry, " London, Feb. 16, 1741. 
 
 " It is with great pleasure, you will believe, that I fulfil 
 my promise of letting you know if there were the least sign of 
 amendment in poor Selwyn,* of whom I gave you so melan- 
 choly an account last post. I wish I could make this more sa- 
 tisfactory to you and myself, by telling you he was quite out of 
 danger, but as his distemper seemed to be at such a crisis 
 that I believe nobody thought he would live four-and-twentv 
 hours, the least change for the better gives us room to hope. 
 He has had some rest : they have given him the bark, and 
 yesterday, they tell me, he was pretty free from his delirium. 
 These are good signs, but yet I am not so sanguine as to 
 flatter myself that he is by any means free from danger. 
 You are so much his friend and so much mine, that I am 
 
 * .Fohii Sclwvii, cldeT l)rotlKT of George Selwyu. Hi' died in 1750.
 
 17 U.] FIELD MARSHAL IL S. CONWAY. 379 
 
 sure you will be glad of this account, and will add some 
 to the numberless wishes that are sent up every day for his 
 recovery, which nobody can fail to form that knows him or 
 knows his merit. I designed to have contented myself with 
 giving you this account, but when I am conversing with you 
 I am tempted, nescio qua dulcecUne, always to exceed the 
 bounds, which, for your sake, I prescribe myself at setting- 
 out. But I should really be to blame, if I did not give you 
 sonic account of your father's victory on Friday in both 
 Houses, that seemed to resemble Cimon's triumphs over land 
 and wave. They made a motion to address his Majesty, 
 desiring that he would be graciously pleased to remove the 
 Right Hon. Sir Robert Walpole from his Council ; but after 
 scheming the whole winter, holding Council upon Council, and 
 junto upon junto, rallying the debris of last winter*'s seces- 
 sion, and raking together the whole hotch-potch — that mingled 
 mass of Jacobites, Tories, Whigs, Republicans, &c., men of 
 all jninciples and of no principles — in order to give a total 
 overthrow before next winter, calling out of their graves a 
 dozen or two of veteres, victi, veternosi series^ who have been 
 bui-ied for ages in the country, drowned all party feuds in 
 October and tobacco, and even forget there was such a thing 
 as politics ; — after all this you may well imagine they were 
 no wiser than ever, and nothing less than Sir Roberfs head 
 (which you know Lord Bathurst has kept in his pocket some 
 time) was to pay for it. Nay, they had calculated to a man 
 by how many votes he was to lose it. What would you 
 think was Sir Robert's majority after this.'* Two hundred 
 and ninety to one hundred and six in the House of Commons, 
 and I think ninety odd to forty odd amongst the Peers! The 
 first who opposed the motion in the House of Commons was 
 Lord Cornbury ; then Mr. Southwell and JNIr. Harley. Above 
 seventy of their sure men left the house before the question ;
 
 380 FIELD MARSHAL H. S. COiNWAY. [1741. 
 
 in short, you never saw people so totally discomfited. But 
 observe the conduct of their leader : he sits still, waiting till 
 Sir Robert should make his speech and withdraw, that he 
 might attack him when he was gone with a new charge. But 
 the whole House called upon him by name, and made him get 
 up, which he did at last in a furious passion, and spoke very 
 ill they say ; for Mr. Pulteney attacked him almost en- 
 tirely upon a thing which, unluckily, was transacted during 
 the seven years that Sir Robert was out of all employment, 
 relating to the army debentures ; but Sir Robert declared to 
 me the day after that his "Bpeech,) which was of an hour and 
 a half.) was entirely made in answer to what Pulteney said, 
 and that he did not make the least use of any notes which he 
 had taken, or of the plan he had laid down before. I did not 
 hear the debate, but am told they never were driven to such 
 shifts. Some said it was sufficient reason that he had been 
 Minister almost twenty years.* 
 
 " Num tamen inveniet tarn longa potentia finem ? 
 
 " This was their chief complaint, and indeed they are to be 
 pitied, not because he has been in power so long, but because 
 they have been out. Poor Lord Carteret was dragged into 
 it head and shoulders ; he has been distracted between shame 
 on one side, and fear on the other this great while. His 
 enmity to the Duke of Argyle drives him one way, and his 
 hatred of Sir Robert another. Two minutes after he had 
 made the motion he rubbed his periwig off, and has not 
 ceased biting his nails and scratching his head ever since. If 
 you want to know their situation at present, read Milton's 
 description of Satan and his crew of fallen Angels ; some are 
 threatening, some silent and gloomy, some reasoning apart, 
 but all overwhelmed with flames and disappointment ; and all 
 in the dark as to everything but their own unhappiness. 
 
 * For iiii interesting account ol' tliis debate, sec Walpole, vol. i. ()4L
 
 17U.] FIELD MARSHAL IL S. CONWAY. 381 
 
 " So much for politics. If I go on any farther you '11 think 
 I have caught the contagion, and am grown as politically mad 
 as any of my countrymen ; but you must know for all this 
 that nobody is so indifferent in party matters. I seldom think 
 about them ; and when I do, I sometimes think one in the 
 wrong, and sometimes the other, but commonly both. When 
 I am angry at either side I rail, and for that moment am 
 courtier or patriot, just as it happens ; but in the generality 
 of my conversation I am a perfect Atticus — I converse with 
 people on both sides, and as I don't love to trouble my head 
 about affiiirs that I have nothing to do in, politics are the 
 last subject I choose to talk of. 
 
 " I hear we are to see you soon, and so I have heard this 
 great while, and yet one does not see you ; but you have sent 
 away your clothes, and so cannot stay; probation est. Be- 
 sides, here will be a seat in Parliament warmed by some fat 
 Courtier, that will grow cold before you come. Be sure, do 
 not play the Lot, nor the Orpheus, nor the fool so much as to 
 cast a look back on Florence when you are set out ; nor once 
 think of your gallery, or the Arno, or your beauties de ce 
 pays-Id, nor any such thing ; for if you do, you are gone — you 
 relapse infallibly for two or three years at least. Shut your 
 eyes all the way through Germany, and proceed straight 
 hither, without turning either to the right or to the left. 
 You cannot imagine how I long to give you a dish of tea in 
 my snug lodgings, and to talk to you of a thousand things. 
 Adieu ! 
 
 " Since I began this, I hear that the doctors think Selwyn 
 much better, and that there are great hopes of him. How 
 often do I mutter, ' When shall we three meet again ? ' 
 Pray come soon, that I may enjoy that wish, and then depart 
 in peace upon my third pilgrimage to that unholy land, that 
 land of bulls. Besides, I may be drowned, you know, in
 
 382 FIELD MARSHAL H. S. CONWAY. [1742. 
 
 going ; and then there is such fighting and such warring over 
 the face of the earth, that one cannot call one's life one's 
 own. What a madman peaceable people would think me, 
 for bartering such an inestimable property for the value of 
 200/. per annum and the ridiculous title of Captain of Dra- 
 goons ! Good bye ! captain or no captain, alive or dead, I 
 shall always be sincerely yours. Service to Gray, and to my 
 Persian friend and likeness. The family make their com- 
 pliments.'''' 
 
 Colonel Conway left England in the sjDring of 1742 to join 
 the army. " We crept over the sea," he says, "in four tedious 
 days, and from thence stepped immediately into a bilander ; 
 which bilander is a certain vast fresh-water machine, an- 
 swering one's idea of the Ark, and filled with just such a 
 motley complement — Dutch, English, German, Flemish, civil, 
 military, male, female, dogs, cats, &c., but all, in appearance, 
 of the unclean kind. In this agreeable conveyance we were 
 dragged by two lean Flanders mares up a narrow canal, and 
 then a melancholy flat, to Bruges, a clean old-fashioned town, 
 that has nothing to be said either for or against it but the 
 neatness of the streets, and puts me in mind of a cleanly 
 old woman, smug and insipid. Here we saw nothing that 
 I care to remember, but Sir Harry Englefield's sister in 
 a convent of English nuns. She is vastly handsome, and we 
 were all that day violently in love with her. The next, we 
 changed our amphibious vehicle for its counterpart upon 
 wheels, very improperly called a ' Diligence,' which brought 
 us five or six leagues in twice as many hours, to Ghent, 
 where we arrived p/w* ennuyes que fatigues, and tired of 
 nothing so much as the great tranquillity and ease of our 
 journey." 
 
 C'olonel Conway had anticipated much pleasure from enter-
 
 171.2.] FIELD MARSHAL H. S. CONWAY. 383 
 
 ing on the active tlutics of bis profession. To a young officer 
 tired of balls and masquerades, and with a bead full of Vau- 
 ban and Folard, nothing could be so delightful in prospect as 
 Flanders and a campaign. Instead of this, be found himself 
 confined to bead-quarters in Ghent, a dull town, where the 
 presence of an army wholly inactive was equally unproduc- 
 tive of instruction or interest. The society of his brother 
 officers aftorded him no compensation for this disappoint- 
 ment. 
 
 " When I shall be reduced," he writes, " to do as they do 
 here, which is, in the most literal sense of the word, doing 
 nothing, is a thing that 1 have no imagination of. You 
 won't believe me when I tell you, that they saunter about 
 the streets, or lounge at a coffee-house or tavern all the day 
 long." He certainly employed himself less discreditably " in 
 sitting at home in his dimity night-gown, reading, both morn- 
 ing and evening ; " though a more fitting occupation might 
 have suggested itself to a Field Officer, now for the first time 
 on service ; and still more censurable was Lord Stair, in suf- 
 fering such raw and inexperienced troops to lose so favourable 
 an opportunity of improving themselves in military discipline. 
 It is not surprising that, as we read in a contemporary his- 
 torian, " the men were idle, unemployed, and quarrelling with 
 the inhabitants.*"* 
 
 It was no slight relief to Colonel Conway, who had soon 
 become heartily tired of this new mode of life, to accompany 
 his friends, Lord and Lady Ancram, in an excursion to 
 Brussels and Antwerp ; and his spirits were so far raised by 
 
 * Walpole says, in liis lively style, "our troops are as peaceable there 
 (Flanders) as on Hounslow Heath, exeept some bickerings and blows about 
 beef with butchers, and about sacraments with ftiars. You know the 
 English can eat no meat, and be civil to no god, but their own." — Letter to 
 Sir Horace Mann, 20th Aug. 1742. Collected Letters, vol. i, 221.
 
 384 FIELD MARSHAL H. S. CONWAY. [1742. 
 
 it, that he addressed, on his return, a lively letter to Walpole, 
 which is inserted here from its reference to one of the very 
 few love-passages in Walpole's life. 
 
 " Dear Horry, " Ghent, Sept. 26, 1742. 
 
 " delight in your disowning your amourette twelve miles 
 out of London. Do you forget all that passed in Chelsea 
 summer-house on that head, and in Chelsea parlour too ? 
 hut if you do I am sure Mrs. Le Neve does not, uor Lady 
 Mary neither, who were both as tired of the subject as you 
 were delighted with it. Yes, twelve miles out of London, 
 Horry ; and yet you are in the right to commend London 
 too. I know your beauty was little out of it at that time, 
 gone to shine and do mischief in some country village : but 
 its satellites accompanied it too, for I remember you made 
 frequent excursions about that time, spite of all the dust 
 and heat in the world. I am not simple ; I know that 
 people like London, as Dr. Bentley said of aj^ple-pie, but 
 nobody loves London for London's sake, but green girls and 
 quadrille matrons. So don"'t think to get off by a vile quibble 
 about residency and inheritance like a vile election witness. 
 You have in short an amourette in the forms, and a sighing, 
 and a walking in the Park, and a galloping about in chaises. 
 All tliis I am sure of, and you have a great deal of confi- 
 dence to deny it. Have you not made songs and read 
 romances ^ Can you deny this too ? HoM^ever, to show my 
 generosity, I '11 tell you how far I '11 go. Of constancy I 
 will acquit you, and that is the last word with you. 
 
 " I like your gross refusal of Dick Hammond's* party, as 
 you call it. Had he really the face to ask you to go a-shoot- 
 ing with him .'' — 1 believe you would hardl}^ go a shooting 
 
 * Mr. Hammond was Walpole's first cousin, being the son of Sir Robert's 
 sister, Mrs. Hammond.
 
 1742.] FIELD MARSHAL 11. S. CONWAY. 385 
 
 with our twelve mile friend ! 'Tis as if Sir Thomas Rohin- 
 son* had asked me to go to Barbadoes with him. You sur- 
 prise me with what you say about winter. I have certainly 
 made some strange blunder in my letter, for I never dreamt 
 of wintering here. I should have hanged myself if I had 
 long ago. I suppose I call this winter, because of tlie bad- 
 ness of the weather, or if I reckon by the length of time 
 I have passed here, Christmas would have come long 
 ago. 
 
 " Majesty swears he will come over and make us encamp 
 and use us to fatigue. Then Prague-f- is not taken, and they 
 say it grows more and more uncertain whether it will or not. 
 The French say it will not, and thereupon little Bossu grows 
 as pert as a pearmonger, and pretends to demand categorical 
 answers to his foolish questions. The Haguers are asleep 
 still, though Lord Stair is come over to jog them again ; yet 
 they dream something of campaigns and preparations, and 
 stretch a little, as if they might wake some time or other ; 
 there's the conversation of this place and the everything of it, 
 for we really have no other news here. 
 
 " I like your idea of St. Austin and his paradise, and I 
 have a notion that Ghent would make a very good paradise, 
 for if four gates and four rivers make a place delightful, a 
 plus forte raisoH, twenty-four gates and twenty-four rivers, 
 which this place has at least. 
 
 " I am just where I was when I wrote last, same life, same 
 ennuis ; I have formed no sort of alliance or connexion. I 
 don't know how it is, some people are made so that they 
 form friendships in a moment, and stick like burrs to the 
 
 * Sir Tliomas Robinson liad lieen recently apjiointed Governor of Bar- 
 badoes. He was tlie elder brother of Primate Robinson. 
 
 t Marshal Belleisle was at this time besieged in Prague by Prince 
 Charles of Lorraine. 
 
 VOL. I. C C
 
 386 FIELD MARSHAL H. S. GONWAY. [l742. 
 
 first person they meet, and I believe they are the happiest, 
 for they never feel for the loss or absence of friends. Theirs 
 o-row Uke hydra's heads. They have a continual supply : 
 John ov Thomas is the same thing to them, and nature has 
 excused them from the constant desiderium of absent friends, 
 or the worst sufferings from bad ones. Adieu, dear Horry ! 
 Je inen tiens a mes anci'eiis, and never was more sincerely 
 or with greater affection, 
 
 " Yours, 
 "^ Compliments." " H. C. 
 
 The inactivity to which the British were condemned must 
 have been rendered more distasteful to them, by the contrast 
 it presented to the brilliant success of the Austrians. Count 
 Kevenhaller defeated the French and Bavarians united, at 
 Lintz, and forced a large body of the former to capitulate. 
 Encouraged by this victory the Count entered Bavaria, and 
 forced his way to Munich, which surrendered without a 
 struggle. At the same time, Prince Charles Lorraine, after 
 maintaining a gallant fight against the King of Prussia in 
 Silesia, turned suddenly on the French, and drove them into 
 Prague, where the capture of Marshal Belleisle, and a corps 
 of 25,000 men seemed likely to reward his enterprise. Lord 
 Carteret passed over to the Hague in September, and in vain 
 urged the States to allow their troops to march with the British 
 towards the Rhine, before the enemy had recovered from the 
 consternation caused by these reverses. Their High Mighti- 
 nesses were as deaf to his representations as they had been to 
 those of Lord Stair in the spring. It was, therefore, deter- 
 mined that the troops should remain in garrison tillTVIarch, 
 and an intimation was given to all officers who were Members 
 of Parliament, that, if they asked leave to go home on their 
 l)rivate affairs, and return, not all together, they would be
 
 17*3.] FIFXD MARSHAL H. S. CONWAY. 387 
 
 very well received. Conway was one of tliose who profited 
 by this indulgence. 
 
 The Session opened early in November. The first day of 
 its proceedings was of so warlike a complexion, as to remove 
 all doubt of the policy of the Government. Carteret and his 
 colleagues embraced the cause of Maria Theresa with chivalrous 
 zeal. Conway had the satisfaction of forming one of a large 
 majority against a motion for disbanding the army in Flanders, 
 and what was equally important to his prospects as a soldier, 
 the army was placed on a footing equal to offensive operations 
 by a liberal grant of money, as well as the accession of an 
 auxiliary corps in British pay, of 16,000 Hanoverians. Ches- 
 terfield in the Lords, and Pitt in the Commons, eloquently 
 protested against measures so dishonourable to the Ministerial 
 leaders, whose main topic in opposition had been the evils of 
 a German war ; but the tide had now turned irresistibly in 
 that direction. At the end of January came the welcome news 
 of the co-operation of the Dutch, and in February, Lord Stair 
 marched with the Anglo-German army towards the Rhine. 
 
 The early operations of the British did not betoken any con- 
 siderable alacrity in their commander. It was said, with some 
 show of reason, that Lord Stair had run into Berg and Juliers 
 to seek battles where he was sure of not finding them. Months 
 were consumed in fruitless marches and countermarches, so 
 tiiat Conway, whom the early prorogation of Parliament had 
 released on the S-ith of April, found the army at the end of 
 ]May lingering in the neighbourhood of Frankfort, without 
 having even seen the enemy. On the Otli of June he writes to 
 Walpole :— 
 
 " I am glad to get a moment to write to you, for we are 
 
 now upon that violent military footing, and so much in earnest, 
 
 that they never let me rest. The night before last, between 
 
 c c 2
 
 388 FIELD MARSHAL H. S. CONWAY. [l743. 
 
 ten and eleven o'clock, we received orders to strike our tents 
 at midnight, and march at break of day, which accordingly 
 we did ; and after marching backward and forward all day, 
 came to take possession of the ground where we now are with 
 the three battalions of Guards, and two regiments of foot. It 
 is an advantageous post, situated upon a hill, and surrounded 
 by woods. The French had their head-quarters at Darmstadt 
 last night, which is about three leagues from us. Twenty 
 battalions, which had repassed the Rhine, are now come over 
 again, and are marching towards us. Our Generals imagine 
 they will attack us immediately, and are in a great fluster. 
 The troops are moving up here, both English and Hano- 
 verian — some are already encamped. We have abundance of 
 parties posted in the woods and about : our piquet guard lies 
 out upon the ground, and, in short, we are as much on the 
 qui Vive as can be. I know you are ignorant what a piquet- 
 guard is, so I'll tell you; because in these warhke days, it is 
 necessary to know a little of terms, in order to read ' Ga- 
 zettes ' and correspond with one's friends. The piquet- 
 guard is a certain number of men in every regiment who lie all 
 night under arms, — in short, are always ready, in case of a 
 sudden alarm, but commonly in their tents. 
 
 " The spirit of our men is surprising : they desire nothing 
 so much as to fight, and never appear so elated as when they 
 think they are going to it. Yesterday morning, as we were 
 drawn up to march, I saw a man of my company, who has 
 been ill a great while, looking like all the ghosts and skeletons 
 you can imagine. He said he was ill the day before, but the 
 news of this march had cured him, and given him new spirits. 
 You niust know the suddenness of this movement and the 
 circumstances of break-of-day and drums beating, made all 
 us young soldiers fancy we were to fight immediately. By 
 this time, I suppose, I have heartily surfeited you with mih-
 
 1743.] FIELD MARSHAL H. S. CONWAY. 389 
 
 tary nonsense. I must add, however, that the Prince of 
 Conti has certainly been beat in Bavaria with the loss of 
 two thousand men. The progress of Prince Charles of Lor- 
 raine in that country is prodigious. He was polite enough to 
 send the Prince of Conti his own baggage, which had been 
 taken. They look upon their affairs as very desperate, and 
 that is what drives them to the thoughts of attacking us. 
 We have been told, that they have positive orders for it, and 
 that the whole army has taken the sacrament thereupon. 
 This is the creed at present amongst our great people ; but 
 for m}; self I am infidel enough to think they are in no such 
 hurry, and that our armies may meet and look at one another 
 without offence. 
 
 " You cannot think how sorry I am for poor Moustache 
 and for Dolly and Neddy Townshend. The first not on my 
 own account, but on yours and poor Pafs ; and the others for 
 their own. I agree with you entirely in everything about 
 Lord Cornbury : in everything but the similitude that your 
 partiality for me has traced between our characters. Indeed, 
 Horry, I am as sensible of the amiableness of his as I am 
 ashamed of the nothingness of my own : however, I am not 
 less happy in your partiality than I should be vain of your 
 judgment in my favour, if I thought it unbiassed. You bid 
 me in your last to think of the comfort of knowing there are 
 those who will hear my complaints and pity them. To think 
 that I am remembered by my friends with some sympathy 
 for all my ennuis and my cares, and perhaps with some little 
 regret for my absence, is, indeed, the only thing that can 
 make it supportable, and by most the greatest happiness I am 
 capable of in my present situation. Adieu, dear Horry, you 
 cannot think how sensible I am of all your kindness, and 
 what comfort I shall always have in hearing from you. T 
 won't begin to pity you till T know you are at Houghton,
 
 300 FIELD MARSHAL H. S. CONWAY. [1743. 
 
 and then only because I know you expect it. However, I 
 think myself obhged in gratitude to answer any sum of com- 
 passion you shall draw for ; my demands are large upon you. 
 " Compliments to Lord Orford and Lady Mary. Oh ! and 
 Mrs. Le Neve, &c." 
 
 The conflict between the two armies, which from Conway's 
 letter seems to have been considered imminent, did not take 
 place. Marshal de Noailles understood the advantages better. 
 He contented himself with harassing the British, and cutting 
 off their supplies, until Lord Stair and the Due d'Arenberg 
 out-manoeuvred at every point, and unable to move without 
 encountering a very superior force, were driven to quit a dis- 
 trict where they could no longer find the means of subsistence. 
 An army of near forty thousand men, with the King, the 
 Duke of Cumberland, who, with Lord Carteret, and the 
 members of the Royal Household, had arrived on the 19th, 
 seemed, to use the words of Lord Mahon, almost within the 
 enemy's grasp. Their destruction seemed inevitable, but it 
 was averted by the victory which the rashness of the young 
 Due de Graniuiont threw into their hands at Dettingen, 
 on the 27th, a day long celebrated in England with enthu- 
 siasm, because the King had shared its dangers, and was 
 supposed to have contributed to its issue. 
 
 Colonel Conway was present in the engagement, but to his 
 deep mortification the brigade of Guards, in which he served, 
 were hindered by Baron Ilton, the Hanoverian General, from 
 coming into the fire, a precaution for which the Baron was 
 afterwards much blamed.* 
 
 The troops efi^ected their retreat to Hanau without moles- 
 tation ; and this was the only fruit of the victory. For a 
 time the King cherished dreams of an invasion of France in 
 * Walpole's Collectctl Letters, vol. i. 2.03.
 
 174.3.J FIELD MARSHAL IL S. CONWAY. 391 
 
 concert with the Austrian g-enerals. The latter had come to 
 Hanaii to discuss the scheme of operations ; but the discus- 
 sions proved very unsatisfactory, and ended in the resignation 
 of Lord Stair, the Duke of Marlborough, and many other 
 English officers, vi'ho complained of the King'^s confidence 
 being given exclusively to the Hanoverians. Conway re- 
 turned to England in the autumn to attend Parliament. The 
 following letters, addressed by him to Walpole subsequently 
 to the battle, refer to these transactions : — 
 
 "Dear Horry, "Camp at Haimu, July 27, N.S. 1743. 
 
 " 1 am ashamed to-day I am now to thank you for two 
 letters; yet the first, of the 25th of June, I did not receive till 
 about three days ago. It was vastly kind, and deserves a 
 thousand thanks ; but if you would not be angry I would tell 
 you it was horrid to be so congratulated for one's escape from 
 dangers one had not been in. I see by your last you won''t 
 let one feel anything of the kind, so I shall say no more upon 
 that subject, and even repent of what I said in my last, you 
 will think me such a fool ! But, dear Horry, by-the-by, 
 how can you try to spoil one so ? I am vastly inclined to 
 think well of myself already, but that I meet with so many 
 rubs every day, so many mementos of my own pauvretc, and 
 if you don't abate a little of your goodness for me you will 
 really make me as vain as I am foolish. To say I am too 
 good for a soldier ! I remember a man, Horry, who was 
 born a footman, and to whom nature had given extraordinary 
 talents for that station. He might even have made a tolerable 
 valet-de-chambre^ but that his friends persuaded him he had 
 parts suited to the stage. He applied to Mr. Rich, obtained 
 a diadem for his first appearance : had the misfortune not to 
 please, fell down all the ranks of the theatre from a king to a 
 snufl-candle, and — starved.
 
 392 FIELD MARSHAL H. S. CONWAY. [l743. 
 
 " I should never have done if I told you all the sights I 
 have seen to-day. Prince Charles, Kevenhaller, a Croat, a 
 Pandour, &c. The first is about thirty years old, of good 
 soldier- like appearance, and in the countenance not unlike 
 Lord James Cavendish ; neither short nor tall, and fattish. 
 Kevenhaller is a little, ordinary-looking man, with a sharp 
 face, and something of Justice Deveil upon the whole. A 
 Pandour is something like a Houssard; but a Croat the like- 
 ness of no earthly creature ; savage beyond all description, 
 and then a perfect magazine of all sorts of implements, mili- 
 tary and civil ; so they are both ; guns, and swords, and dag- 
 gers, and pistols, and arrows, and knives and forks, and 
 spoons, and belts, and pouches, and cartridges, to the end of 
 the chapter. They came the day before yesterday, and go away 
 to-morrow. What they have concerted, or whether anything, 
 I know not. I begin to grow impatient to know, whether we 
 shall have anything more to do or not : tell me what you 
 think in England. I am for forcing the French to excellent 
 terms ; but, then, dear Horry, how I long to be with you, 
 and how I despair of it for ages. I would even now with this 
 prospect of peace compound for three months. I cannot bear 
 to think of it ! 
 
 " JNIake my compliments to all your family. I would write 
 to assure Lord Orford of my duty, but that I could not hope 
 to give him any amusement, and am afraid of being trouble- 
 some. Adieu.*" 
 
 " Dear Horry, " Oct. 25, 1743, N.S. 
 
 " You will wonder how I can be arrived at the Hague 
 without having let you hear a word of my journey, and com- 
 municating to you the vast joy I feel upon my escape, and the 
 great part you bear in it. But the hurry of my journey, to- 
 gether with the hurry of my spirits, was so prodigious that
 
 174J.J FIELD iMARSIIAL H. S. CONWAY. 393 
 
 either I have forgot or neglecteel half the things necessary to 
 be done upon the occasion. I am now at the Hague as I 
 told you, where I am under promise to stay some days with 
 Lord Holdernesse, by whose means I obtained my conge. 
 Lord Iloldernesse, they say, is going to be married here : for 
 me, remember I say nothing of it. The lady's name is 
 Doublet. I saw her all day yesterday. Dinner at Mr. Tre- 
 vorX and cards and supper at Lord Stair's ; and I assure you 
 I think her both pretty and agreeable to a degree. Lord Stair 
 has not yet taken his leave here, but does not interfere 
 with any sort of business or politics whatever : he talks of 
 going the beginning of next week. He entertains, too, with 
 his usual magnificence, and, in short, may very probably be 
 prevailed upon by his amusements and his indolence to stay 
 something longer than he intends. I mention this, because if 
 he holds his resolution, I think it just possible I may come 
 over with him. I hear he stays in London this winter, but on 
 peril of his regiment, and Government is not to make any stir 
 in the political world, but play at whist, tout de bon, all winter 
 long. 
 
 " I hear the Duke of Argyle is succeeded in his honours 
 and estate by his worthy brother, from whom they fall to 
 Jack Campbell, when he shall have fuddled away his days 
 amongst toads, spiders, and projectors. 
 
 " The Hague looks like a capital, and is very pretty; but 
 the society savours more of a large country-town ; consisting 
 of one general circle, where all know one another, from 
 whence the communication of news is so regular, that you 
 have not made water five minutes before the whole town is 
 acquainted with it. With this incessant eating, driidcing, and 
 cards, and a French comedy, voild la Hague ! You M'ill say 
 I form my opinion very soon, and so I do, but in short this
 
 394 FIELD MARSHAL II. S. CONWAY. [l7U. 
 
 is my opinion, and whether it is right or wrong, signifies not 
 three halfpence either to you or me. 
 
 " We fell down the Rhine from Mentz to Cologne, which 
 took up almost three days, during which time we were 
 amused with many of the finest prospects, but particularly 
 the most rude and romantic, the most Salvator Rosa that 
 ever you saw, even passing the Grande Chartreuse by Cham- 
 berri and the Savoy Mountains. Such noble horrors of rocks 
 and woods, and ancient castles perched upon the summits of 
 pointed rocks, with all the fury of the Rhine finding its way, 
 or rather forcing a passage through a ridge of mountains ! I 
 longed to loll over an Ariosto, or be buried in some end- 
 less romance of your acquaintance, Clelia, or Cleopatra, or 
 Amadis de Gaul. 
 
 " Adieu, dear Horry, I hope I shall find you in town. I 
 hope so for your sake and my own, and it is really an inde- 
 cent time to be starting on those bleak plains. I am very 
 sorry to hear Lord Orford has had a fall, but ho[)e it has had 
 no consequence. Pray give my duty to him, and my best 
 compliments to Lady Mary, Mrs. Le Neve, and all friends. 
 
 "Adieu, 
 
 " H. C." 
 
 Whilst Conway was attending Parliament his merit or in- 
 tei-est procured him the appointment of aide-de-camp to Mar- 
 shal Wade, who had succeeded Lord Stair in the command 
 of the British army in Germany. This promotion necessarily 
 brought with it increased opportunities of future advance- 
 ment, and Conway at first rejoiced warmly in his good 
 fortune. He joined the Marshal at Ghent towards the end of 
 May, 1744. A very short time sufficed to show him the va- 
 nity of his hopes. Listead of gaining victories, the only object 
 of the Marshal seemed to be to avert defeats. He was an
 
 1744.] FIELD MARSHAL IL S. CONWAY. 395 
 
 elderly man, whose reputation had been gained in subordinate 
 commands, particularly as a disciplinarian. The overwhelm- 
 ing force with which the French overran Flanders, and perhaps 
 the great name of Marshal Saxe, alarmed him for the safety 
 of his army, and he remained an inactive spectator of the 
 surrender of Courtray, Menin, and Ypres. His caution or 
 timidity found a striking contrast in the rashness of the Due 
 d'Aremberg, the commander of the Austrian counterpart, 
 and their disputes not only created parties in the camj), but 
 divided public opinion in England. Under such circum- 
 stances, the campaign of 1744 reflected no lustre on the 
 British arms. Conway returned home, disheartened and 
 disgusted, in the autumn. The following letters were written 
 by him during the campaign. 
 
 " Dear Horry, " Lessines, May 21, N.S. 1744. 
 
 " I THANK you for your kind little letter, which, indeed, 
 had so much goodness in it that it easily covered all the fault 
 of its extreme conciseness ; the only fault that yours can ever 
 have with me. As to your joy upon the occasion, I should be 
 ungrateful to find fault with that after you have told me I had 
 some share in it ; and I assure you, you do me too much 
 honour to think me so stiff a patriot as not to be sensible to 
 such feelings. I felt them here in the safety of some that are 
 with us, and I own I find myself capable of carrying them so 
 far, that I am afraid I could see the balance of Europe shake 
 with tolerable philosophy if the quiet possessions of ray friends 
 and attachments were secured to me. I wish all the world 
 happy with all my heart, but they will give me leave to wish 
 myself so too. I would even sacrifice a great deal to make 
 them really so, but not to nourish the pride of any system or 
 any foction, great or little, in the universe. I am not even 
 ashamed to say to a friend, in the midst of a camp, that I
 
 396 FIELD MARSHAL H. S. CONWAY. [1741. 
 
 look upon peace as the summum honum. I only wish them 
 all of one mind in politics and religion, and I believe the 
 world would be much happier and much better if they were 
 all good Mussulmen, or good Frenchmen, than in this collision 
 of systems and religions, kingdoms, republics, states, parties, 
 sects, and factions. 
 
 " I hear your prediction about our friend and, as you call 
 her, my disciple, is accomplished ; and that things are almost 
 to her present satisfaction, only he is to undergo the ordeal 
 trial of one campaign before he can approve himself worthy. 
 But this I dare say is of his own seeking, and I will do her 
 the justice to think she would take him as he is, without any 
 such chimerical probation. As to the Earl, I fancy he will 
 wear his willow with a Christian resignation, for he seems to 
 have been growing cool for some time as fast as the other grew 
 hot. However it be, I really wish her very happy, and should 
 be glad to hear he was like to make her so. I don't know 
 him at all. 
 
 "As to our military affairs, I shall not trouble you much 
 with them. By all accounts the actual loss of the enemy in the 
 late engagement was greater than ours, and for further conso- 
 lation we hear the French, and even their King himself, extol 
 the English bravery to the skies. We are promised recruits 
 immediately, and are by no means dispirited by our disap- 
 pointment. Tournai has capitulated, and eight days are given 
 to the Governor to consider whether he will give up the 
 citadel. I hear you have been at Houghton ; what could tempt 
 you to such an extravagance ? Give my compliments to all 
 friends, particularly Mrs. Townshend, if you see her. Does 
 she talk of retiring ? Adieu. 
 
 " Yours, dear Horry, sincerely, 
 
 "H C."
 
 1744.] FIELD MARSHAL IL S. CONWAY. 897 
 
 "Dear Horry, " Lessines, June 21, N.S. 1744. 
 
 " I would fain foncy I deserve all the compliments you 
 make me ; but notwithstanding my opinion of your excellent 
 judgment and great love of truth, I cannot find in myself all 
 those good qualities that you attribute to me, especially that 
 unreasonable reasonableness that you are so good as to give 
 me. I own I feel myself so divested of it, that I have no 
 idea what I have done or said to impose upon you so grossly. 
 If you knew all the ridiculous weaknesses I feel, even you 
 would allow me to be unreasonable enough o"* conscience; nay, 
 I dare not confess them all to you, for fear you should think 
 me too much so. I know you are no great friend to reason, 
 so am the less vain of your compliment ; yet in return for it 
 I am willing to give up my reason to merit your good opinion, 
 and fairly disclaim all title to it; only just keep so much of it 
 as is sufficient to show me the insignificancy of it, and to 
 make me wish for less, unless it be the reason of stoics that 
 teaches us to be indifferent to everything. This world is not 
 made for reason, and a man who follows it strictly is sure to 
 be disappointed; whereas, he that forsakes it, has perhaps not 
 above ten or twenty to one against him. For me, I am very 
 unreasonable I own, and very whimsical in ray desires, and 
 therefore I think it is barely possible I may be happy one 
 time or other ; but if I am not to be so in the way I desire, I 
 assure you neither honour, nor interest, nor regiments, nor 
 generalships, nor kingdoms can give it me. You told me 
 before 1 was unreasonably reasonable, now tell me if I don't 
 appear reasonably unreasonable. In the first place, I heartily 
 wish the campaign over; and yet, when it is, may possibly be 
 as far from my happiness as I am at present ; if so, why I 
 shall wish it begun again. Such uncertain creatures are we ; 
 almost every season and every circumstance of our life makes
 
 398 FIELD MARSHAL H. S. CONWAY. [1744. 
 
 a new man of us ; so I fancy others ai*e because so I feel my- 
 self. Hapjjy to-day, because I flatter myself with some pro- 
 spect of success — as unhappy to-morrow, because some trivial 
 accident has damped those hopes, and both perhaps with 
 equal or with the least reason imaginable. All mankind, 
 without they are very reasonable or stoical indeed, have some 
 point in view, some wish, to the accomplishment of which all 
 their views and all their endeavours tend. Whatever you offer 
 them that is foreign to that, may perhaps console them a 
 little, but cannot satisfy them. 
 
 " That cruel something, unpossest, 
 Corrodes and levens all the rest. 
 
 " I won't enter too far into this discussion ; but from this I 
 fancy many men draw a great deal of merit they have little 
 or no real title to. It is with our passions as with our siglit, 
 fix it firmly upon one object and you will find you hardly 
 perceive any other. It is not that one wants sensibility, but one 
 wants attention to them. Thus much for myself: I don't insist 
 upon your understanding nor believing me, if you have not a 
 mind ; it will serve as a matter of s])eculation at least, and so 
 serves very well for the purpose of correspondence. However, 
 I am glad to hear our friend Artemisia wants neither sensi- 
 bility nor attention : of the first I should never suspect her ; 
 and for the other, provided she chooses her time well, it is 
 no great matter, you '11 say. Attentions to the absent are 
 like those to the dead, mere pageant and ceremony, and more 
 becoming a Mogul lady than an European Princess. I was 
 very vain of the cutting of the hair, but that bleeding party 
 I own is very grand and quite puts my vanity out of counte- 
 nance ; notwithstanding which, I assure you, my rival and I 
 are very well together. I hear he knows all about me, and 
 in return I assure you, whatever I hear about him will not 
 now give me a moment's uneasiness. I sincerely wish her
 
 1744..] FIELD MARSHAL IL S. CONWAY. 399 
 
 well and happy, and only hope we may be no mora so sepa- 
 i*ately than we could have been together. As for the other 
 person you mention, if I know who it is, 1 am not ashamed 
 to say I love her very sincerely, but in such a way as to wish 
 her very happy, while I am in Flanders, I assure you. So pray 
 make my compliments, if you see her ; tell her I am vastly 
 obliged to her for thinking of me sometimes; that it cannot be 
 oftener than I think of her, and that by this time all schemes 
 of retirement are quite laid aside. 
 
 " I am afraid the citadel of Tournai is taken, or upon the 
 point of being so. What changes this will cause with us, I 
 don't yet know. 
 
 " Adieu, dear Horry, yours affectionately, 
 
 "H. C. 
 
 " Compliments to Lady Mary and Mrs. Le Neve. 
 
 " P.S. Since I wrote this the citadel of Tournai is given 
 up, on condition that the garrison shall not serve anywhere till 
 the 1st of January, 1747.^' 
 
 " My dear Horry, " Elsighcm, Aug. 5, 1744. 
 
 " I am quite at a loss where to begin or how to thank you 
 for all the vast goodness and friendship of your last ; I know 
 it is out of my power to do even that as I ought. Judge, 
 then, how unhappy I must be in seeing it so impossible for 
 me to do anything, that can deserve the name of the smallest 
 return for such an abundance of kindness. I know the little 
 value set u})on words on such occasions, and therefore shall 
 endeavour to trouble you with as few as possible. I know 
 they are common to art and honesty, yet I flatter myself there 
 is a simplicity in the genuine overflowings of a heart full of 
 real gratitude that is not to be counterfeited. If there is, that 
 I am sure will speak for me on this occasion ; besides, I know 
 amongst all your goodness to me you have had some opinion
 
 400 FIELD MARSHAL II. S. CONWAY. [174.4 
 
 of my sincerity, and if you have the least opinion of the good- 
 ness of my heart you cannot doubt of my feeling everything that 
 gratitude and friendship can make one feel for a real obligation. 
 Nor is my joy inferior to either — a joy, my dear Horry, not 
 arising from any thought of advantage that I intend to draw 
 from it, but from the knowledge of having such a friend, and 
 seeing a proof of such goodness as I thought had no longer 
 existence, but in romances — a mere creature of the brain, and 
 that had long been banished from the hearts of men. • 
 
 I have no alloy to my satisfaction on this occasion, but the 
 difficulty I have in refusing an offer pressed in so kind a manner, 
 and from one whom I know not only sincere in his intention, 
 but from an excess of goodness even desirous of putting himself 
 to inconvenience on my account. But, dear Horry, how ver}' 
 unworthy should I think myself of that goodness, if I were 
 capable of accepting it ? I see the art you use to lessen the 
 value of the obligation, by saying you have no use for it, and 
 setting in a ridiculous light the manner in which you dispose 
 of it ; but, as to the first, I know your income is by no means 
 such a one as can bear an incumbrance of that kind. True, it 
 is vastly more than is necessary for your sustenance; so is mine, 
 and so is Tom Barry's, but the inconvenience is, retrenching ; 
 leaving the routine in which one sets out, or living below one's 
 rank, and the expenses of the company one lives with. If 
 you or I had been born a ditcher, we should have thought it 
 no sort of hardship to live upon bread and cheese, and bacon, 
 and a plum pudding once a week ; but as it is, our ideas, our 
 appetites, and our train of life are otherwise formed, and what 
 would be luxury in one station is penance in another. But as 
 to the other article, my dear Horry, look round the world. See 
 of what kind the expenses of others are, and then see if yours 
 deserve the name you give them. Half the money in Eng- 
 land is sacrificed to the vices of the first owners, and the
 
 1744.] FIELD MARSHAL H. S. CONWAY. 401 
 
 encouragement of it in otliers, to French vintners, French 
 cooks, and French whores, without enumerating all the train 
 of follies that almost absorbed the other ; while yours is dis- 
 posed of in a manner equally useful to society and honourable 
 to yourself, by encouraging in your sphere those arts that hu- 
 manize mankind, or by supporting those with your charity 
 who are real objects of compassion. 
 
 "I am too sensible of my own incapacity to make half so 
 good a use of it, and I should both rob them of the effects 
 of your generosity, and you of the pleasure of exercising it. 
 I could use many other arguments. May not you think one 
 time or other of changing your situation ? may not you have 
 a family to provide for ? As to my own part, the thought 
 of dependence is, I assure you, by much the lightest argument 
 with me against it ; because I know you well enough to know 
 you would take care I should forget it. Besides, my mind 
 begins to be formed a little to dependence. I find it is my 
 lot, and I must endeavour to bear it with as little reluctance 
 as possible ; and as this would be only a change of dependence, 
 I could certainly place it nowhere so well, as upon one whom 
 I even feel a pleasure In being obliged to, as I would be bound 
 to him by all possible ties. I hope, then, my dear Horry, you 
 will forgive me I'efusing you now, perhaps, the only request I 
 shall refuse you in my life ; and as I know the steadiness of 
 your desire to serve me, I cannot help making it mine to you 
 — that you will not think of pressing me any more on this 
 head, as my resolution Is absolutely fixed, and as that is the 
 only sort of acknowledgment I cannot make on this occasion. 
 
 " As to the other affair about which I wrote to you, I 
 thank you a thousand times for the Interest you take in it ; 
 but am sorry to find any consideration should make you think 
 It necessary to use the least reserve on that subject which, as 
 my situation at present is not such as makes It necessary, I beg 
 
 VOL. L D D
 
 402 FIELD MARSHAL H. S. CONWAY, [1744. 
 
 you will avoid for the future. As to engagements, I really 
 have none with her, but such as may be construed to arise 
 from the circumstances you mention ; and as her honour is by 
 no means hurt by our intercourse, 1 don"'t look upon mine as 
 absolutely bound, especially considering the light in which sve 
 stand at present, the difficulties that oppose themselves to our 
 marriage, and the inconvenience arising to her from it at best ; 
 and as to the matches refused, it must be owned that they 
 were such as indeed were advantageous in regard to fortune, 
 but such as in every other light she ought in prudence to 
 refuse. Thus much on this side of the question ; on the other, 
 an acquaintance carried on like our own, with a knowledge of 
 each other's inclinations, may strictly be looked upon as a 
 sort of agreement. 
 
 " I find you have no great opinion of my resolution ; and, 
 indeed, my behaviour on some occasions relating to this affair, 
 (which I fancy you may have known something of,) has not 
 been such as would give you a very great one. But at present 
 with regard to that I really think, at least at present, that I 
 am capable of keeping one, if I thought it absolutely necessary; 
 and as to bearing what may be said, I do assure you, my dear 
 Horry, it is impossible for you to say anything upon it that I 
 should either imagine proceeded from any motive but that of 
 serving (I have too good proofs of your love!) or remember 
 afterwards to the prejudice of our friendship in any degree. 
 What you mention, our happiness afterwards, is certainly the 
 grand point, and as it is one of such infinite consequence, I 
 expect from your friendship that you will say everything to 
 me that you think or know may relate to it without conceal- 
 ing the least tittle that you think it better for me to hear. 
 You know, I believe, the doubts I have formerly had on that 
 head, and though I cannot accuse her of anything lately that 
 could revive them, you know it is easier to revive them.
 
 1741..] FIELD MARSHAL H. S. CONWAY. 403 
 
 than to form such ; and it is impossible to promise oneself 
 that they would not grow again, and even more strongly in 
 another situation. I shall say no more : you see I speak very 
 freely to you, and beg, above all things, you will use no sort 
 of reserve to me. By what you said, I should imagine she 
 was concerned in the afifair that passed lately between you and — 
 which I assure you is the first I have heard of it ; if it was so. 
 We have at length passed the Scheld, which is looked upon as 
 our Rubicon, and are now advanced within about three leagues 
 of the enemy's camp. To-morrow's march will bring us 
 pretty near them, but with the Lys between us, so that I 
 fancy no consequences will immediately follow from it. 
 Adieu ! another time I will write to you more fully of these 
 things. 
 
 "H. C." 
 
 " Dear Horry, « Chateau d'Anstam, Sept. 2, 1744. 
 
 " Nothing is so true as what you prophesy about us ; I did 
 not quite think so when I received yours, but I assure you I 
 am now almost convinced that we neither can nor shall do 
 anything. Thanks to the King of Prussia, Prince Charles 
 has repassed the Rhine, the French are coming back again, and 
 we shall shortly be just where we were some months ago. I 
 am in such a rage at that anointed highwayman, that filthy 
 King of Prussia, that I could tear him to pieces. I want to 
 have him poisoned, massacred, racked ; nothing could satisfy 
 me about him — don't you feel just the same ? Is there any 
 bearing it ? I hate politics of all things — they are now upon 
 that abominable footing — to see all the affairs of Europe take 
 a new face just as the phlegm o-r gall of one foolish fellow is 
 uppermost. It sets the world in so ridiculous a light, and so 
 depreciates the dignity of human nature, that there is no see- 
 ing it with patience. And yet I think it ought to give one 
 
 D D 2
 
 404 FIELD MARSHAL H. S. CONWAY. [1744- 
 
 l^atience too, for it teaches one that there is nothing in this 
 great world that deserves a moment's care, or a moment's 
 dependence. Kings, empires, states, ministries, and armies, 
 all appear to me now in the light of fine raree-shows, that one 
 may divert oneself a little with, provided one has no interest 
 in them; but from the moment you have that, the scene changes 
 and they become a group of tyrants, fools, pickpockets, and 
 butchers. Yet through this crowd of villany one must be 
 content to bustle, and the best way to get through it is to think 
 as little as possible. 
 
 " I speak now of the great world, I mean the public, for my 
 ideas of private life are very different. I think it is impossible 
 to make the first a foundation for one solid satisfaction, and 
 I think the other, well managed, affords a thousand. And a 
 propos to that, — I thank you a thousand times for all your 
 goodness in your last ; but you shock me when you talk of 
 determining to live so as to have it in your power to do things 
 for me which your goodness inclines to do, but which I have 
 already told you I could never think of accepting. No, my 
 dear Horry, don t think of it, I beseech you ; and as the 
 benefit is intended for me, oblige me more by resolving to live 
 in all respects in the way that is most agreeable to yourself; 
 for I do assure you I never should be easy a moment, if I 
 thought you changed the least tittle in your way or your 
 schemes of life on my account. My fortune is certainly 
 small — is nothing at all, so is that of a thousand people 
 that I see every day of equal rank with myself; and I shall 
 make it my business to adapt my views and my desires to it. 
 As to one certain point, you know that was not the only diffi- 
 culty I had upon it ; and in the end who knows but I may be as 
 happy as I am, as if things had taken quite another turn. 
 You know I was always a sort of philosopher, for which you 
 laugh at me, but it really has its use, and I really hope to be
 
 1745.] FIELD MARSHAL IL S. CONWAY. 405 
 
 one time or other the better for it. By this time you are at 
 Houo-hton. I Avant to know how you amuse yourself there ; 
 do you think it possible one should wish to be with you there .'* 
 I assure you T do extremely. I wish it for itself very much, 
 and for your company, and I wish it too by way of not being 
 here, — this is really dreadful ! For diversion — would you 
 think it — we do no earthly thing but play at whist with the 
 
 M quite en famille every evening ! He is vastly good, 
 
 but you feel what that is. 
 
 "Adieu, dear Horry; we can do nothing, I doubt, and 
 Heaven knows how I long to have this farce over. 
 
 " My compliments to Lord Orford and Lady Mary, to 
 Mrs. Le Neve, &c." 
 
 The 3'ear 1745 opened with improved prospects to Conway. 
 Marshal Wade, whose want of enterprise, if not of military 
 talent, had made him impopular at home, was replaced in 
 the command of the army by the young Duke of Cumberland, 
 then in high reputation from the spirit he had shown at Det- 
 tingen. His Royal Highness immediately appointed Colonel 
 Yorke, afterwards Lord Dover, a son of the Lord Chancellor 
 Hardwicke, and Colonel Conway as his aides-de-camp. 
 
 The British army in Flanders had, during the winter, 
 been placed on an efficient footing. It took the field early 
 in April. Colonel Conway had hurried from London to 
 join it as soon as he could be spared from Parliament. To 
 his extreme mortification he found, on reaching Dover, that 
 the wind had changed the very day of his arrival, and after 
 continuing two months successively in the west had veered 
 to the east, where most of the sailors predicted it was likely 
 to continue for the next fortnight or three weeks. To at- 
 tempt the passage would be useless, and yet the idea was 
 dreadful that there might be a battle in his absence, an oc-
 
 406 FIELD MARSHAL II. S. CONWAY. [1745. 
 
 currence far from improbable, since he had been informed that 
 the Duke was marching to the relief of Mons, which had been 
 for sonie time invested by the enemy. As it was, he joined 
 the Duke just in time to take part in the battle of Fontenoy. 
 
 " Dear Horry, " Dover, April 18, 1745. 
 
 " I don't know whether you will thank me for writing from 
 this cursed place, where 1 find no earthly thing to tell you, 
 and can write nothing but complaints ; but if I have nothing 
 to say on one hand I have so little to do on the other, that I 
 don't know how I could answer passing so many idle hours 
 without letting my friends hear something of me ; and if I 
 have no hopes of amusing you, I know you will excuse my 
 trying to amuse myself by writing to you, though it be a 
 little at your expense. I was so fortunate as to arrive here 
 the very day that the wind changed to the east, after con- 
 tinuing in the west for two months successively, and have 
 the comfort of hearing from most of the sailors here, that it 
 is likely to continue in this quarter a fortnight or three 
 weeks. To add to the agreeableness of this situation, the 
 army is now actually in the field, and in all probability 
 marched to the relief of Mons, which they say has been some 
 time invested by the French, and consequently it is not very 
 unlikely that there may be some action before we get up to 
 it. I am not fonder of broken bones than my neighbours, 
 but yet really am very uneasy in this situation, and wish 
 a thousand times I had never heard of Mr. Pelham, the 
 Parliament, and the no business that kept me so long in 
 London ; though I must have the gratitude to own, I was as 
 much obliged to them then as I am angry at them now, and at 
 myself for being so. Don't you pity me excessively, with 
 all my distresses and ennuis about me, and no sort of amuse- 
 ment or occupation to divert me from them ? I have been
 
 17*5.) FIELD MARSHAL IL S. CONWAY. 407 
 
 vastly obliged to your Abelard, and with that melancholy 
 companion have visited all the cliffs n^ion the coast, till I 
 was ready to take a lover's leap from some of them in errant 
 despair. Bnt they are rather too high, and without one 
 could be taken up by some kind shepherdess at the bottom 
 and recovered, there would be no joke in it. Besides, it 
 would be shameful, just at the opening of a campaign, to have 
 so very little patience as not to live, at least, till one crossed 
 the water, that it might be said one died abroad. That sounds 
 tolerably even in these unheroic days ; but I don't think we 
 have any taste for the romantic, and I fancy I should make 
 just the same figure in a newspaper as some poor love-sick 
 house-maid that drowns herself in Rosamond's Pond. And 
 you. Lord how you despise one ! I really believe, instead 
 of lamenting your cousin, you would laugh at me for being 
 such a fool; for it is a long time since you were romantic. 
 I remember you buried in romances and novels ; I really 
 believe you could have said all the " Grand Cyrus's," the 
 "Cleopatra's," and " Amadis's" in the world by heart, nay, 
 you carried your taste for it so far that not a Fairy Tale 
 escaped you. Quantum mutatus ! But one thing I comfort 
 myself with ; you have laid up a vast stock of romance, and 
 one day or other, when you fall in love, it will all break 
 out ; and then, Lord have mercy upon you ! I would not 
 have you come within ten miles of Dover. 
 
 " I desire you will write to me and tell me all the news 
 you know, that I may have something to say to you if 
 I am destined to stay here. We hear of great news from 
 Bavaria, but only by the papers, so that is not to be depended 
 upon. Tell Lady Mary I hope she has received the books 
 for our library : 1 left them with Mr. Smith, and a book 
 of plays that 1 borrowed of you. 
 
 " Do you know Mr. Hardenberg ? I live with him and
 
 408 FIELD MARSHAL H. S. CONWAY. [1745. 
 
 Lord Charles Hay ; tliey are very civil and good-natured, and 
 if we don't amuse one another much, I attribute it quite 
 to the dulness of the place and the uneasiness of our situa- 
 tion. Adieu ! 
 
 "Yours ever, H. C." 
 
 " Dear Horry, " Ash, May 14, N.S. 1745, 
 
 " After all my delays and distresses at Dovei*, I was cer- 
 tainly in the greatest luck imaginable to come up time enough 
 for the battle. I don't doubt, too, but you will think that of 
 escaping from it, and escaping without the least accident, was 
 at least equal to it ; and to say the truth, notwithstanding all 
 the dignity of distress that you talk of, and the ambition of 
 making a romantic corpse, it is a piece of fortune I am far 
 from despising. To another, now, I should strike up imme- 
 diately, and relate in a high, historical style, all the exploits 
 of the day, but as I know you as unheroical as you own your- 
 self unsentimental, I shall content myself with very few words 
 on that head. We marched out of our camp at day-break, 
 and began to form on the plain, which was the field of battle, 
 before five o'clock ; from which time their cannon began play- 
 ing upon us, and did not cease till half an hour after one, 
 though we were engaged several hours with small arms. This 
 plain rose gradually towards a fortified village* of the enemy, 
 in the centre of it, and had a wood on the right, from both 
 which their chief batteries played. Some of our battalions 
 advanced beyond the village, and over the top of the rising, 
 but were so miserably galled by the cannon, at the same time 
 that they were engaged with their line, that our troops, after 
 rallying several times, were forced to retire ; but they not 
 caring to pursue us, we lost not a single man in our retreat, and 
 that night brought oifall our baggage. As to the behaviour of 
 * Tlic village of Fontciioy, which gave its name to the battle.
 
 1745.] FIELD MARSHAL H. S. CONWAY. 409 
 
 the Duke, of which I was witness the whole time, I can say I 
 never saw more coolness, nor greater intrepidity than he 
 showed throughout the whole, exposing himself wherever the 
 fire was hottest, and flying wherever he saw our troops fail, to 
 lead them himself, and encourage them by his example. His 
 horse received three wounds, and he one spent-hall on his 
 arm, which only made a slight bruise, but did him no hurt. Of 
 us, poor Ancram and Lord Cathcart are both wounded, but 
 they are in a very good way. For myself the balls had the 
 same complaisance for me as for the Duke: one only hit my leg 
 after all its force was gone ; and my horse, which I rid all 
 day, received only a slight wound in the leg. Lieut. -General 
 Campbell and General Ponsonbyare killed; and in general we 
 have a vast number of officers of the company that came over 
 with me, too. Colonel Douglas and young Ross were killed. 
 Lord George Sackville* and Lord Charles Hay wounded, but 
 both, I hope, are in a good way. There — I did not think I 
 should have said so much, and I am sure you are vastly tired 
 of it. Our loss in the right wing amounts, I think, to 5822 
 killed and wounded, and in the left, who, I doubt, did not do 
 quite so well, between 1500 and 2000. Poor Berkeley is 
 killed ; whom I lament excessively. Colonel Montague, too, 
 is killed, and was very lucky in it, for his thigh was first 
 broke, and the moment they took him up to carry him off, a 
 cannon-ball took off his head. The Major, too, is wounded. 
 " The Duke has just sent for me, so I must conclude, 
 '■'■ Your"'s, dear Horry, most sincerely, 
 
 " What poor Para pan !" 
 
 The progress of the Rebellion in Scotland having thrown 
 the country into consternation, and raised a general cry for 
 
 * Lord George Sackville was wounded severely, fighting with great cou- 
 rage at the head of his grenadiers. His laurels withered at Minden.
 
 410 FIELD MARSHAL H. S. CONWAY. [l743. 
 
 more vigorous military operations, the Duke of Cumberland 
 was removed from Flanders, to the command of the troops, 
 and to the North Conway accompanied His Royal Highness, 
 and continued his correspondence with Walpole as usual. 
 
 " Dear Horry, « Lichfield, Nov. 30th, 1745. 
 
 " I have hardly had a moment to write yet, and only 
 pretend now to tell you in three words that we are hitherto 
 safe and sound. Our troops are almost all come up ; one 
 battalion of guards came in here this morning, another is 
 expected to-day, and the last to-morrow. The rebels are 
 come to Warrington, which is about forty-four or five miles, 
 I think, from this place; yet I hardly think they will venture 
 an engagement, because they seem to have lost time and been 
 irresolute in their motions. As soon as we are assembled, I 
 fancy to-morrow or next day, we shall advance. If they 
 should do the same, the affair will soon be decided betwixt us, 
 and I hope entirely determined. If not, we are in some hopes 
 ISIarshal Wade may be able to oppose their retreat, which they 
 seem to think of; if the accounts are true that we have heard 
 of their having left one hundred men in the Castle of Carlisle, 
 and since sent twenty waggons of cheese and biscuit thither 
 under a guard. We had some idea they might think of 
 trying to slip us and march towards London, through Derby- 
 shire, but they are now quite out of that road. They can't 
 think of Chester, while we are so near. I cannot think them 
 mad enough to go into Wales, where both the armies must 
 block them up, and therefore they must, in my opinion, 
 either engage us or retire immediately. All this makes me 
 happy in a prospect of seeing the affair soon ended, which, of 
 all things I most wish, having very little apprehension of 
 their success. 
 
 " We lay a night at Lord Strafford's on the road, and past
 
 1745.] FIELD MARSHAL IL S. CONWAY. 411 
 
 almost a whole clay there. They were vastly polite, and 
 would have us come though we had sent an excuse at night, 
 because it was so late. In answer to it he sent us his coach, 
 and said he should stay supper, so there was no refusing, 
 though it was twelve o'clock before we got there. There 
 was Lady Lucy, a Miss Cockburn, and Mr. Vernon, who set 
 out early the next morning for town. It is a bad house, and 
 I think a disagreeable place. Make my compliments to 
 Lady Mary and Mrs. Le Neve ; let me hear from you, and 
 believe me, 
 
 " Ever yours, H. C. 
 " Direct to me at the Duke's quarters at Lichfield, or 
 elsewhere." 
 
 " Dear Hobry, " Wigan, Dec. 13, 1745. 
 
 " I am extremely obliged to you for the anxiety you 
 express in your last on our account, and think I cannot at 
 present make a better return for it than by taking the first 
 opportunity to let you know that your friends are all well, 
 and for some time at least 1 think out of the way of danger. 
 It is true we are at present in pursuit of the rebels, with a 
 strong body of cavalry of both armies, and some infantry ; but 
 they are got so much a-head of us, that it is very doubtful 
 whether we shall be able to overtake them. However, I think 
 the step we have taken is very right, and though we should 
 not be able to attack them, it seems incumbent upon us to 
 wait on them out of the kingdom, and at least make their re- 
 treat as little commodious to them as possible. They marched 
 from Preston this morning, and are at Lancaster to-night. 
 This place is about ten miles from the former, and our ad- 
 vanced parties, I fancy, will be to-night beyond Preston. I 
 have a strong idea that as soon as we appear, it will put them 
 in a good deal of consternation, and perhaps occasion a deser-
 
 412 FIELD MARSHAL H. S. CONWAY. [1745. 
 
 tion amongst them ; for they are in great apprehensions of our 
 cavah-y, and are besides low in spirits, and mucli harassed. 
 They talk of halting at Carlisle to receive their reinforce- 
 ments from the North ; but I believe our march will puzzle 
 them excessively, and very likely make them stagger in that 
 resolution; as it will be impossible, I should imagine, for those 
 reinforcements to join them before we reach Carlisle, and, of 
 course, have it in our power to intercept them. Marshal 
 Wade is marched back with the main body of his army ; and 
 if they stay at Carlisle will join us there. Our men are in 
 very good healtlT and spirits, and horses in excellent order, 
 so that if they should stand before us, I should have no 
 doubt of success, as they cannot defend themselves against 
 the force of our cavalry. 
 
 I thank you for your reproof about my reflexion on the 
 slowness of the JSIarshaFs proceeding ; and though I don't re- 
 member what, or to whom it was, I must own it could not 
 be right, as the fact on which it was grounded was not true — 
 at least in the light I put it, which, however, was as we had 
 been informed, and so far, I think, my reflexion was excus- 
 able. The horse who had been advanced did halt at or near 
 Richmond about the time I mentioned, while the foot were 
 continuing their route. I must still say very deliberately, 
 towards Ferry Bridge, where they halted three entire days. 
 I must own I think there is a great fault in their proceedings, 
 and I am the readier to say it, because I know that the fault 
 is far from being all or even the chief part of it in the Marshal. 
 I know that he is obstructed and hampered in every step he 
 takes by a dead weight of Dutch troops and their generals, 
 whom he must drag after him, and therefore he cannot act 
 with that expedition and spirit that he ought, and that the 
 times and our present circumstances require. 
 
 " As to what regards the reflexion coming from me, I
 
 1746.] FIELD MARSHAL II. S. CONWAY. 413 
 
 have really a great esteem for the Marshal, and am far from 
 forgetting that he behaved with great civility to me while I 
 was under him ; hut yet I canuot think those obligations of a 
 nature to prevent my giving my opinion to my friends ujjon 
 his conduct in an affair so interesting as that of his present 
 command; and I assure you, I should do the same of any per- 
 son in the world in that situation ; I mean with that decency 
 that is due from one of my rank to his ; and in confidence to 
 my friends only, where one accustoms oneself to speak with 
 freedom one's sentiments upon most things without imagining 
 they are ever to be called in question ; and as for opening of 
 letters, I don''t suspect that in the number tTiat pass through 
 the offices mine are like to make any impression, or even to 
 incite a curiosity of knowing to whom they belong. How- 
 ever, dear Horry, I take your reproof as I am sure it was 
 meant : it is a liberty I love my friends should use with me. 
 I think it is a proof of friendship, and therefore could not 
 dislike it from any, but least of all from one of whose good- 
 ness I have had so many marks. 
 
 " We march again to-morrow morning, and I fancy shall 
 hardly make a halt till we come up with them, or see them at 
 least to our we plus ultra. 
 
 Adieu ; give my best compliments to Lady Mary, Mrs. 
 Le Neve, and all friends. Ned Cornwallis has just joined us 
 with his, and is of our expedition. 
 
 " Yours, sincerely, 
 
 " H. C." 
 
 •' Dear Horky, " Aberdeen, Wednesday, March 19, 174G. 
 
 " I hear of nothing but gaieties and gallantries amongst 
 you, which is shocking, considering that I have now for 
 some time given up all hopes of seeing you for ages, indeed I 
 doubt not till next winter ; for, if I get the regiment I know it
 
 414 FIELD MARSHAL H. S. CONWAY. [l74«. 
 
 will be here, and consequently I am fixed here till that 
 time at least, and perhaps longer, at least so my fears tell 
 me. And I am so imprudent as to have been uttering 
 those fears in all my letters till my brother has actually 
 chid me, and I must own he is in the right, for it may 
 have a bad construction put upon it, as if I was indifferent 
 to the service and not sufficiently sensible of the obliga- 
 tion I have to the Duke on that account ; but perhaps 
 the thing may not be so near as we thought. I imagined it 
 was actually done, and that blowing over perhaps it may now 
 be some time before it is determined ; so I shall in the mean 
 time suspend both my joys and my fears on that head. But, 
 exclusive of that, I doubt our stay is likely to be long here, 
 considering the obstinacy of the rebels and the resolution of 
 the Duke to see the rebellion entirely finished, which, with 
 all the disagremens that attend it, I cannot help entirely 
 applauding, and I am in hopes that the motions we shall soon 
 make, will contribute greatly towards it. Our van-guard is 
 now advanced within twelve miles of the Spey where they are, 
 and as soon as the wind, which is more obstinate than the 
 rebels, will let our supplies come up, we shall all move on 
 there. The party that I told you I had been upon was to 
 take a post called Strathbogie, where there had lain for some 
 days past a body of the rebels, that called themselves 1500 
 or 2000, but were, I believe, about 800. General Bland, 
 who commands the van-guard, consisting at present of 
 four battalions of foot, two of cavalry, and the Campbells, 
 marched on Monday morning early thither, in hopes to have 
 surprised that post, and had like to have succeeded, for the 
 rebels did not know of our approach, nor begin to move out 
 of the town till our advanced party was within sight. They 
 had been out in the morning attempting to surprise a post of 
 ours, and were returned in about an hour, when they saw us
 
 1746.] FIELD MARSHAL IL S. CONWAY. 415 
 
 advancing, and then marched oft* with great precipitation ; so 
 we got the post very cheap at least, which is an important 
 one, thongh we acquired no great honour. We pursued 
 them about two miles beyond the town with some of King- 
 ston's light horse, a few dragoons, and some of the Camp- 
 bells ; but General Bland, fearing we should engage too far in 
 a country we did not know, especially as night was coming 
 on, and our troops were fatigued with a long march, 
 ordered us to return. One of Kingston's thought he wounded 
 Roy Stewart by a shot in his arm, and a fellow who came to 
 Strathbogie since, says he is dead of the wound, which at 
 least seems to confirm a little the belief of his being wounded. 
 He staid in the rear, I believe, chiefly to reconnoitre our 
 party. This is all the mischief we pretend to have done. 
 However, the men found a good hot dinner in most of the 
 ^quarters, which the rebels were just sitting down to, and 
 perhaps were very well contented to get without fighting for 
 it. Adieu ! dear Horry, I have no more news to tell you. 
 Is Mrs. Le Neve with you ? my service to her. 
 
 " Yours affectionately, H. C." 
 
 " Dear Horry, " Aberdeen, Sunday, Marcli 20, 1746. 
 
 " You are very good to pity us, and an for as pity can go 
 in cases so desperate as ours, I can give your good patron 
 the satisfaction of knowing it does console us ; but as you say, 
 to combat so many demons under all the various forms of 
 Hio^h and Low landers, friends and enemies, to combat at the 
 same time with all that climate, country, and air can afford 
 of disagreeable, and with it the worst of all devils, a thorough 
 ennui and inquietude, in twenty different shapes of regret, 
 mortification, and desire, is more than I believe my patience 
 is well able to sustain. However, one must make the best of 
 it, and having little or no matter for it, we here draw all our
 
 416 FIELD MARSHAL H. S. CONWAY. [1746 
 
 consolation from the charity and good nature of our friends, 
 who, I hope, too can afford us a thought now and then with- 
 out interrupting too much the scene of gaiety, that I hear 
 flourishes so in London, and which I assure you I am far 
 from envying you, though I can't help regretting it. I assure 
 you I hear even with pleasure how your divisions go on, and 
 that you have sent all your discontentment and fear to Scot- 
 land, the proper seat of them. This I would have, and pro- 
 vided you think of us sometimes, it is all we expect. Poor 
 Lady Chapman. I am sorry to hear her gaiety has had so 
 unfortunate a catastrophe ; and poor Sir John, I pity him 
 more, for I hear he is like to have his impotence made as puhlic 
 as his wife's lewdness has long been. How could he be such a 
 fool as to meddle with her ! I hear M. Vane Hope. Queer. 
 Is it possible ? But indeed I am convinced there is nothing 
 a girl won't run away with : it is the great joy they have. I 
 hear there have been fifty quarrels between Lady T — d and 
 Lady Car. : between the lattter and his grace a dismal one, 
 and an irreparable breach between Lady T — d and Mr. W. 
 These things are all very diverting, and I am vastly glad to 
 hear the town has so much spirit. Plays, operas, and mas- 
 querades, and balls are vulgar diversions ; but quarrels, scandal, 
 and gallantries, charming — don't you think so ? As for us, we 
 grow duller and duller ; the rebels have crossed the Firth of 
 Cromarty in boats, favoured by a fog, in consequence of 
 which Lord Loudon's fine army is, I doubt, entirely dispersed. 
 The last accounts from Fort William look as if they were 
 giving over their design upon that place, and everything looks 
 as if they were going north towards Sutherland, &c., where 
 it will be happy if we can pen them up. Adieu ! dear Horry, 
 You see how stupid I am, how little I have to tell you. 
 
 " Yours ever, H. C. 
 " You don't say a word of Lady Mary. Pray give my
 
 1746.] FIELD MARSHAL IL S. CONWAY. 417 
 
 compliments; ami to Churchill, I iutended to have written 
 and wished him joy, hut I think it is too late now." 
 
 " Dear Horry, " Aberdeen, Saturday, April G, 174G. 
 
 " I do not know what you mean by glory and triumph. 
 I am conscious of no title to anything of the kind, not even 
 as they are often bestowed, without being acquired ; and I 
 assure you, I have less taste for them since I have been sent 
 here to hunt after them, where we have little chance to find 
 them, and where, I must own between friends, I doubt the 
 fjiirest sprig of laurel would hardly have tempted me to come, 
 upon condition of remaining in this exile so long as I have 
 done, and, much less, so long as I am afraid I am condemned 
 to stay. 
 
 " I hear now of another regiment vacant, yet my fate in 
 regard to that still remains in suspense. I do not know 
 whether my friends, and even I myself (for which I have had 
 some reason too), have not been too sanguine in our expecta- 
 tions. You know I have a sort of jumble of hopes and fears 
 on that head, which are all at their full height at present, and 
 so will continue until the affair is decided ; and, I must own, 
 neither my love of money, nor desire of being recorded by 
 the Parson of Ragley, nor hardly by yourself, have weight 
 enough to overbalance my desire of seeing and living a little 
 with my friends. 
 
 " Pray, since when have you set yourself the task of 
 becoming our historiographer ? I am mighty glad to hear it, 
 'because in less able or less partial hands I could not hope to 
 make any figure at all. As to my picture at Echardt's (and 
 which I suppose is now to be copied, en taille douce, for my 
 frontispiece), I can say now, Avhat I never could before, that I 
 wish ten times more than you can, to sit again and have it 
 finished. However, for the print it may do very well as it is, 
 
 VOL. L E E
 
 418 FIELD MARSHAL H. S- CONWAY. [l746. 
 
 the armour being much more to the purpose than the face of 
 the hero, and it being a pretty inclitferent thing to posterity, 
 whether my eyebrow is more or less arched, the hollow over 
 my eye more or less conspicuous : and a propos to posterity, 
 &c. To talk in the style of my now country, if I find that 
 I am to live here long, I assure you I shall die very soon ; so 
 you may be preparing your history for the press. Besides, I 
 should be curious to see it before I die, and should be glad to 
 know what shape it is to appear in ; whether memoirs, con- 
 taining the adventures of my private life, or a grand history 
 of my public one only; or whether military, civil, or both ; 
 because on all these heads I could give you many useful hints, 
 being acquainted with sundry curious particulars of my own 
 story, that nobody in the world knows but myself, nor ever 
 would, but for the fair opportunity you promise me of seeing 
 them make a figure in the world. And indeed, I believe the 
 principal part of my achievements are of this kind, so that it 
 is absolutely necessary I should be consulted, especially as the 
 ' Gazettes ** will furnish you but very sparingly ; so great is 
 the negligence and inattention of those people. 
 
 " As to a certain lady (whose connexion with my history I 
 do not insist upon your inserting, unless you have a mind to 
 do it for the instruction of your children, by an episode, as the 
 ' Island of Calypso,' for instance, or rather, I should say, the 
 'Story of Antiope") — as to her, I do not know how it will sound 
 if you mention it in my history, but nothing was ever greater 
 than my tranquillity^ on hearing what you tell me confirmed : 
 and as I really wish her well, I should be glad she is married, 
 but I think I have seen better prospects of harmony and 
 happiness. 
 
 " Adieu, dear Horry ! We march to-morrow, that is 
 something ; but as it is yet a long way to John o' Groat's 
 House, I do not know when we shall turn our faces to
 
 mo.] FIELD MARSHAL H. S. CONWAY. 41.9 
 
 Lontlon ; so continue to pity me as much as you please, and 
 I know of course you will try to comfort me. Yours. Ned 
 is here. 
 
 " Pray tell Mrs. Townshend I am vastly glad to hear of 
 her recovery, and advise her against that quantity of scream- 
 ing relations, for fear of a relapse. 
 
 " P.S. Since I wrote, the ' Sheerness ' has come in with 
 the ' Hazard ' sloop, formerly in our service, and now a pri- 
 vateer in the French. He chased her a vast while, and at last 
 drove her on the northern shore, after a sort of running fight 
 of three or four hours. The crew and troops aboard all 
 landed — in all near two hundred, with four or five-and-tweuty 
 officers, French and Spanish, — but meeting about seventy of 
 Lord Loudorfs regiment, mider the Captains Sir Harry 
 Monro and Macery, with twenty militia, they were attacked 
 by them, and after losing six, I think killed, the rest were 
 taken, and are now brought here by the ' Sheerness.' They 
 had at least 8000/. in specie with them, which they had 
 landed, and was taken by Lord Loudon's men, who were so 
 vastly rich by it they did not know what to do with it ; but 
 they made a division, and sent five hundred as a present to 
 the captain of the ' Sheerness,' and gave some more to some 
 volunteers that were with them ; but on arriving here they 
 offered to lend it to the Duke, for the use of the army, who 
 has accepted it. It was by the oddest accident in the world 
 that all this happened, for this party were some of Major 
 Mackenzie's, who surrendered himself at Dornoch, on the 
 rebels passing over the Firth, but having then made their 
 escape, they tried to join Lord Loudon, who was marched for 
 the Isle of Skye but found themselves intercepted, and were 
 saving themselves by marching northward when they met 
 with these people ; so that by the same accident they got so
 
 420 FIELD MARSHAL H. S. CONWAY. [l746. 
 
 much money and honour, and secured themselves by going 
 aboard the man-of-war. 
 
 " Besides this, the ' Sheerness ' took another small armed 
 vessel with military stores, at the Orkneys, in her way round. 
 This capture will distress the rebels greatly, as they are in 
 prodigious want of money. 
 
 " We have at last accounts that they have raised the siege 
 of Blair, upon the approach of the Hessians, and that many 
 of the Athol men have left them thereupon. I hear of no 
 damage done on either side at this siege, but one man, I think, 
 killed ; for the rebels kept at due distance, only firing their 
 cannon against the walls, which are immensely thick. I 
 write this on Monday, our march being deferred to-day, but 
 to-morrow I fancy we shall move. 
 
 "Dear Horry, « Inverness, April 18, 1746. 
 
 " You accuse me of not telling you news : I am going to 
 make up my omissions by such news as I hope will content 
 you. We have beat the rebels — beat them in a set battle, 
 and, I assure you, de la' bonne maniere, losing very few of our 
 own and destroying a good number of those vermin. You 
 have heard how they ran away from us at the Spey ; they 
 did the same at Nairn, the place we encamped at before our 
 last march : we were almost out of breath with running after 
 them, and had lost all hopes of meeting with them. The 
 truth was their people were not come in ; the young Pretender 
 still lay at this place waiting for the junction of the Clans, 
 who were dispersed all over the country. At Nairn we 
 halted one day to refresh our troops as well as to inform 
 ourselves of the posture and countenance of those gentlemen, 
 and heard that they were assembled, had marched out of this 
 place, and drawn themselves up in order of battle in a moor 
 on our side of Inverness, expecting we should march that
 
 1716.] FIELD MARSHAL IL S. CONWAY. 421 
 
 day; from all which it was pretty clear they intended to 
 give us battle. The night before we marched they sent a strong 
 detachment to surprise our camp, who marched back without 
 attempting anything. On the 16th we marched and found, 
 by deserters and other intelligence on the march, that they 
 were posted on a great moor near Lord President's house, 
 called Culloden House, and on our left as we marched to 
 Inverness. This moor lies in a high mountainous country, 
 and we imagined their design was to come down and attack 
 our flank on the march, whereupon we bore up upon the hills 
 to the left, and our advanced guard soon discovering them 
 drawn up in order of battle, our march was ordered so as to 
 come just upon their front, which was so well executed that 
 we came up exactly over against them in the best order 
 imaginable. They began the cannonading, but were so well 
 answered by our artillery, which was divided between the 
 intervals of the front line, that in about ten minutes we saw 
 that their centre began to be in some confusion. At the 
 same time we perceived that the Highlanders, who were drawn 
 up very deep on each flank, began to move forward in columns 
 to attack us, and on our left they actually made some im- 
 pression on Barrel's regiment, attacking them sword in hand, 
 and mixing with them. But that regiment, as well as 
 Monro's, plying them well with their bayonets, and the 
 second line keeping its order and advancing to sustain them, 
 they were soon repidsed with great loss. At the same time 
 a party of the Campbells with our cavalry on the left coming 
 up almost unperceived upon their flank, put their right in 
 entire confusion and made vast slautj^hter. On our rijjht, 
 perceiving that the Clans were coming down in columns, the 
 Duke ordered Pulteney's regiment and Kingston's horse up 
 from the reserve to strengthen that flank; whereupon, seeing 
 that we rather out-flanked them, and that our men kept up
 
 422 FIELD MARSHAL H. S. CONWAY. [1746. 
 
 their fire, tliey never ventured to come amongst but sheered 
 off", and soon joined in the deroute that was begun on the 
 left and in the centre, and which now became quite general. 
 From this time it was nothing but pursuit. They left all 
 their cannon, and our cavalry did their duty very well in the 
 pursuit, sparing very few that came in their reach. I believe 
 they have lost between two and three thousand men, of which 
 the major part are left on the field. All the French piquets 
 surrendered prisoners, and some of the horse are come in 
 since. Lord Kilmarnock and Lord Lewis Drummond with 
 some more of their chiefs are taken, and I believe a good 
 many killed. Brigadier Stapleton is wounded and taken. 
 On our side the loss is very inconsiderable, not amounting to 
 above two hundred killed and wounded ; amongst whom 
 are very few officers, and nobody of distinction but Lord 
 Robert Kerr killed, and Colonel Rich wounded. Bury will 
 be with you perhaps before this reaches you, and tell you all 
 these things much better than I can. Adieu ! Dear Horry, 
 in vast haste. 
 
 " Yours ever, 
 
 " H. C. 
 " Ned and all friends are well.'"' 
 
 " Dear Horry, " Inverness, Wednesday, May 7th, 1746. 
 
 " I wish I was at London, and you at Inverness, that I 
 might find something to say to you, but in such places and 
 such a life as ours, what can one have to talk of but swords 
 and firelocks, marches and dispositions ; and is not it better 
 to say nothing ? When we have a battle, or the smallest skir- 
 mish to treat you with, you are sure to have it ; but I know 
 you too well, and have too much consideration for you, to 
 torment you with all the fiddle-faddle stuff that makes the 
 body of our news and conversation. Li short, it is unreason-
 
 1746.] FIELD MARSHAL IL S. CONWAY. 423 
 
 able of yon, most unreasonable, indeed, to complain of a 
 soldier, in the heart of a dismal northern campaign, for not 
 writing news or being entertaining. It is a mercy we can 
 write at all, and if we don't tell you bad news, I think you ' 
 ought to be mighty well contented. However, to stop your 
 mouth for some little time at least, I wrote you not only an 
 account of our victory, but I assure you a much longer 
 account than I wrote anybody ; and if I continue in the same 
 style, I have a notion should soon tire you out of your com- 
 plaints, and make you own that it is in writing as in other 
 things, // vaut mieux rien ecrire quecrire des Hens; unless one 
 had Madanae Sevigue''s, your favourite, or your own turn to 
 say them agreeably ; besides they must be an agreeable kind 
 of nothings that are capable of such a turn ; but to think of the 
 dry transactions of our camp turned by such a clumsy hand as 
 mine! — it would really make you sick, and I say again I have 
 too much consideration for you. 
 
 Yet the history of our female captives I know would have 
 flourished in your hands, and made a very good romance, 
 serious or comic, as you happened to be disposed. Lady 
 Macintosh, as they call her, because she is wife to the Laird 
 of that name, is very young, and they say very handsome. I 
 have not seen her yet. She left her husband, who is in 
 Lord Loudon^s regiment, and led out her men, or rather his. 
 I believe she was in the battle. Since her being taken, 
 she has suffered no farther confinement than that of being 
 obliged to live with her Laird, which, I believe, with the 
 addition of two lovers that visit her constantly, the poor 
 woman finds grievous enough — these are the old President 
 whom you remember at your father's, and is now as old again, 
 and Colonel Cockayne, M'hom jierhaps you have seen, both 
 seriously enamoured. She was said to be the first in the good 
 graces of the Young Gentleman, but I believe had only the
 
 424 FIELD MARSHAL H. S. CONWAY. [l746. 
 
 uame of it ; for he is generally reckoned quite indifterent to 
 women, and I believe a true Italian in all respects. Her 
 favoured lover seems to have been one Macgillivray, whom she 
 laments much (he was killed at the battle), and asks if he 
 did not make a fine corpse ? Lady Ogilvie, I believe I told 
 you of, is very young, too, and rather handsome, but so 
 foolish and so insensible of her condition, that my pity for her 
 was soon Morn out ; yet she really is much of a heroine, and 
 might make a very fine figure in romance. Amidst all her 
 misfortunes, and such as one would think should affect a 
 woman most, as the loss of a young husband, not dead, but 
 in great danger at least, and the fears of imprisonment or 
 death, she seems to feel only for the loss of the battle and 
 the ruin of their cause ; though she has told me in confidence 
 that she was yet sure the Prince would come to the throne. 
 In short, she has been so very indiscreet, and talked treason to 
 everybody so outrageously, that the Duke now lets her see 
 nobody which she took so to heart, that yesterday I was told 
 she was fallen very ill. 
 
 " Lady Kinloch and Lady Gordon are at liberty, and in 
 their room we hear that Sir James, husband to the first, is 
 taken, as is Lord Tullibardine ; I think he surrendered him- 
 self. The young Pretender is gone towards the west coast, 
 where he landed, and yesterday we had an account of two 
 French men-of-war going into Loch Moidart, we suppose in 
 order to take him off. A twenty gun ship, and I think a 
 small sloop or two, followed them in, and engaged them some 
 time, but finding them too strong for them, were obliged to 
 stand out again. Orders are sent to larger ships to sail imme- 
 diately, and endeavour to intercept them. One they say is a 
 good deal disabled, and even our small ones intend to lie by 
 and wait for their coming out. We have another piece of 
 ship news, which, if it proves true, is very great, and the
 
 1746.J FIELD MARSHAL H. S. CONWAY. 425 
 
 authority is very good, too, for the ship that brings the 
 account from the West Indies to the Duke of Newcastle, 
 spoke to one of ours oft* the Orkneys; who sent the report to 
 the Commodore here. It is, that a twenty gun ship of ours, in 
 company with a privateer, has taken the fourth galleon, the 
 richest of them all, and worth a million in bullion. We hear 
 of no rebels together anywhere, so that I fancy our remaining 
 work will be pretty easy. The day before yesterday one hun- 
 dred M'Phersons, I have a notion they were, surrendered 
 themselves with their arms, and were brought in here by the 
 Grants. We are preparing for our march, which I fancy will 
 be in a few days. A shocking journey into the heart of the 
 Highlands ; but it is all one. I mind much more the time 
 than the conditions of my pilgrimage, and nothing shocks me 
 now, but that I am not to see you till November, that is the 
 term I set myself, and it is a dreadful one — adieu ! Compli- 
 ments to Lady Mary, to Churchill, ^Irs. Le Neve, &c. 
 
 " Yours ever. 
 
 '5 
 
 "H. C. 
 
 " P. S. I am glad the Duchess of Q.'s windows were broken 
 with all my heart, and think she deserved more for her foolish 
 obstinacy. I am only sorry a certain house in Lincoln's Inn 
 Fields* did not sufter as I hear it deserved. 
 
 " I had forgot Mr. Mann, nothing but the D's desiring 
 it shall make me employ any other, but as I think he em- 
 ploys him himself, there is no likelihood of that." 
 
 * The Duke of Newcastle's. 
 
 END OP THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 F F
 
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