1756.

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81

the small forts of Ontario and Oswego were reduced by the French.

During this summer Leicester House was not free from cabals, nor the Ministry from divisions. In June the Prince of Wales attained the age of eighteen,-that is, his majority under the Act of Regency. On this occasion the King made an effort to withdraw him from the Princess Dowager's control. He wrote him a gracious letter, stating his Royal intentions that the Prince should be allowed 40,000l. a-year,-that a suitable establishment for him should be appointed,—and that he should henceforth occupy the apartments of the late Prince at Kensington and of the late Queen at St. James's. His Royal Highness, however, full of filial duty, returned for answer that he would accept with the greatest gratitude the Royal bounty,-but that he entreated His Majesty not to separate him from his mother, which would be a trying affliction to both. Thus the King apprehended that he might have to give the money, and yet not obtain compliance with the intended condition. Another difference immediately arose as to the choice of the principal person in the new Household. The Princess, and after her the Prince, had set their hearts on Lord Bute for Groom of the Stole,-an appointment to which the King entertained a strong repugnance, the stronger perhaps as it was not explicitly avowed. A private Council, or, rather, meeting of friends, was summoned by His Majesty upon these family questions, and of their conference Lord Waldegrave, who was present, has left us a curious account.* Nothing, however, was decided at this meeting, or at several others. At last, towards the beginning of October, Newcastle, not daring to meet the Parliament while Leicester House was dissatisfied, obtained the King's consent to both points at issue,—that the Prince of Wales should continue with his mother, and that the Earl of Bute should be Groom of the Stole. His Majesty could not, however, be persuaded to admit Bute into the Closet, and deliver to him the badge of his office in the customary form; so he gave the Gold Key to the Duke of Grafton, who slipped it into Bute's pocket,

saying, he wished it could have been given in a more proper manner, but advised him to take no notice.

In the Ministry, Fox's heart had long been swelling at the falsehood, the perfidy, and the childishness of Newcastle. Though Secretary of State, he found all substantial power withheld, all intimate confidence denied. He saw himself involved in the ill success of measures upon which he had not been consulted,-upon which he had scarce been suffered to give an opinion. He saw the country in a flame at the loss of Minorca, and discerned the drift of the old intriguer at the Treasury, to cast, if possible, the burden from his own shoulders to the shoulders of his colleague. In October, therefore, as the meeting of Parliament approached, Fox asked an audience of the King, entered into a short statement of his grievances, and obtained His Majesty's permission to resign the Seals.

Sir

At this very period the Duke of Newcastle lost the only other speaker in Parliament who could cope with Pitt; or who, according to Lord Waldegrave's expression, "had courage even to look him in the face."* Dudley Ryder, the Lord Chief Justice, had died this summer, after a short illness, and the very day before he was to have kissed hands for a peerage. Murray, both as Attorney General and as the best lawyer in Westminster Hall, had an undenied and undeniable claim to the vacant office. But Newcastle, eager to retain him in the House of Commons, plied him with various proposals, -a Tellership of the Exchequer,-or the Duchy of Lancaster for life,-or the Attorney Generalship, with a pension of 2,000l. a year. Nay in the beginning of October Newcastle had bid up to 6,000l. a year of pension! All was in vain. Newcastle then conceding the main point, began to haggle as to the time, entreating Murray to remain in the House of Commons at least another Session,-at least one month,—at least one day, the day of the Address, and to speak for it. Murray steadily refused. At length he was obliged to tell his friends in plain terms that if they did not think proper to make him Lord Chief Justice he was determined not to

*Memoirs, p. 82.

1756.

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continue Attorney General, and that as to the business of the House of Commons he should leave them to fight their own battles. This frank declaration had an immediate effect; and Murray obtained not only the Chief Justiceship but also a peerage under the title of Mansfield.

Still, however, Newcastle cherished the hope that he might by a new combination maintain his power. He prevailed upon the King that a flattering overture should be sent to Pitt; but Pitt, conscious of his own importance, absolutely refused to treat with the Duke. He declared, with some irony, that he had infinite respect for His Grace in his private capacity, but that a plain man, unpractised in the policy of a Court, must not presume to be the associate of so experienced a Minister.

Newcastle next tried Lord Egmont, to whom he offered the Seals of Secretary, and the lead of the House of Commons. Egmont was an able speaker, delighted in public business, and bore a high character in private life; but he had fixed his mind upon an English peerage. He refused to engage unless he were forthwith removed to the House of Lords, which was directly opposite to the Duke of Newcastle's object, the House of Commons being the only place where he wanted assistance. Thus, then, Egmont, placing no faith whatever in the Duke's assurances of a peerage at some future time, allowed this negotiation to drop.

Still untired whenever office was in view, Newcastle then proposed to Granville that they should exchange places, the Duke becoming Lord President, and the Earl First Lord of the Treasury, with power to construct as he pleased the new administration. How gladly ten years ago would Granville's ambition have leaped at such an offer! But now he had grown too old, or, as he termed it, too wise.

At length, every expedient having been tried and having failed, and not a single commoner remaining of sense and character who would stand in the gap, or place any further trust in Newcastle,-the Duke most reluctantly resigned.* He was followed, to the general

The Duke of Newcastle has advertised in all the papers that "he retires without place or pension. Here is a list of his dis"interestedness. The reversion of his Dukedom for Lord Lincoln.

regret of the nation, by his constant friend, and the main pillar of his administration, the Earl of Hardwicke, whose advancing years had for some time past counselled retirement. Never has the high office of Chancellor been more uprightly, more learnedly, and more ably filled; and after him the Seal was either left in commission or only entrusted to a Keeper, during the whole remainder of this reign.

Sir George Lyttleton also was dismissed from the Chancellorship of the Exchequer, and Lord Anson from the Admiralty. The fall of the first, however, was softened by a peerage. He had shown little aptitude for business, but had gained general respect by his honesty, candour, and accomplishments. Anson had been justly renowned for courage, perseverance, and good judgment in his expedition round the globe, but had by no means obtained so high a character in office at home. From having been rated far too high in his abilities, he became, by a common and natural transition, unduly depressed; and a violent though ill-founded clamour had been lately raised against him for the loss of Minorca.

The ground being thus cleared, the King sent for Fox, inquired whether Pitt were willing to act with him in office, and bade him ascertain. Next day, accordingly, Fox went to the Prince's Levee, and taking Pitt apart at the head of the stairs, asked him if he was going to Stowe, as he would soon have a message of consequence by persons of consequence. Pitt answered: "One likes "to say things to men of sense, and of your great sense "rather than to others, and yet it is difficult even to "you." "What!" said Fox, 66 you mean that you will "not act with me as a Minister?""I do," rejoined Pitt.*

"This is the only Duchy bestowed by the present King. On my "father's resignation, the new Ministers did prevail to have Duke"doms offered to Lord Northampton and Lord Aylesbury, but "both declined, having no sons. Mr. Shelley, the Duke's nephew, "has the reversion of Arundel's place. Mr. West has a great rever"sion for himself and his son. Your little waxen friend, Tommy "Pelham, has another reversion in the Customs. Jones, the Duke's "favourite Secretary, and nephew of the late Chancellor, has "another." H. Walpole to Sir H. Mann, November 29. 1756. * Lord Orford's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 97.

1756.

66

The intended coalition being thus nipped in the bud, the King next applied to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, who, by his father's decease in the preceding winter, had become from Marquis of Hartington the fourth Duke of Devonshire. This nobleman was, like his father, naturally averse to public business, and engaged in it only from a sense of duty, but, like his father also, was highly esteemed by all parties for probity and truth. Dr. Johnson, for example, though opposed to the Duke in politics, bears a strong testimony to his character. "He was not a man of superior abilities, but strictly "faithful to his word. If, for instance, he had promised 'you an acorn, and none had grown that year in his "woods, he would not have been contented with that ex66 cuse, he would have sent to Denmark for it."* All the former intimacy, all the personal predilections of the Duke, tended to Fox; but, on assuming the commission with which the King had charged him, he found Fox distrusted by the people and excluded by Pitt, while Pitt himself was now regarded by the public as the only man able to steer the vessel of the state through the coming storm. It was therefore not with Fox, but with Pitt, that the Duke of Devonshire, notwithstanding his friendship for the former, combined. His Grace became First Lord of the Treasury, and Pitt Secretary of State, retaining, to gratify the King, Lord Holderness for his colleague. The Chancellorship of the Exchequer fell to Legge; the Admiralty to Pitt's brother-in-law, Earl Temple. The Duke of Bedford became Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, at the instigation, as is alleged, of Fox, and with a view, on Fox's part, to the future embarrassment of Pitt. Several of the late Cabinet, and many more in subordinate employments, remained, for Pitt had but few Parliamentary followers; he mainly relied on his Grenville connection, and, as Horace Walpole maliciously observes, "had not cousins enough to fill the whole "administration."

The new administration, however strong in talent, was, it soon appeared, greatly wanting as to Parliamentary interest and influence. These had been always too little

Boswell's Life of Johnson, under the date September 22. 1777.