LVII. 1778. It was through one of these Commissioners, CHAP. namely, Mr. Eden, that Lord North opened his communications to Lord Chatham. Mr. Eden could not see the great Earl, who was still at Hayes, but had several conversations with his trusted friend, Lord Shelburne. It was soon apparent, as Lord North must have foreseen, that Lord Chatham had not the smallest inclination to make common cause with the party in power. If he came into office at all, it must be on the call of his Sovereign, and as planning a new administration; it must be as what the King in high displeasure terms him-a Dictator. In Lord Chatham's own papers, as subsequently published, there appears no trace whatever of these overtures, which may probably have passed by messages and word of mouth. We only find that his family and friends, in common with the public, expected at this juncture a summons from St. James's. Thus writes William Pitt to his mother from his studies at Cambridge:-"I am not sure whether I can "find in the history of antiquity any instance of a "nation so miserably sacrificed as this has been "but I believe almost every page will furnish an "example of the only method left to revive it, "with a group of little laughing loves, were in his train, and "for the first time crossed the Atlantic!" (Debate in the Commons, November 26. 1778.) See also an amusing jeu d'esprit which appeared in a London paper of that day, and which has been reprinted in the Appendix to the Life of Reed (vol. i. p. 423.). СНАР. 1778. 66 recurring in the extremity of danger to those "whose superiority is unhappily as much proved by the failure of others as by their own success." Mr. Thomas Coutts, already rising into eminence as a banker in the Strand, transmits an offer of public service from Lord Rochford, and adds, to Lady Chatham: "I do not meet with any one who "does not lament and wonder that His Majesty "has not yet publicly desired the only help that "can have a chance to extricate the country from "the difficulties which every day grow greater." If called upon, Lord Chatham was ready to obey the call. His blood was roused, as of yore, against the House of Bourbon, and he deemed that the war with France, if it could not be averted, should be most vigorously waged. We may gather, that it was his intention to propose, as General-in-chief, Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, who in his former administration had commanded our armies with so much glory and success. reading the French note of the 13th, he had given his eldest son, Lord Pitt, permission to re-enter the army. Soon afterwards, accordingly, Lord Pitt sailed for Gibraltar, as an aide-de-camp to the Governor; he served long enough, let me observe in passing, to become, as second Earl of Chatham, himself the General and Governor of that fortress. On Meanwhile, many members of the Rockingham * See the observations of Lord Shelburne in the House of Lords, April 8. 1778. LVII. 1778. party, feeling, as they well might, greater con- CHAP. fidence in Lord Chatham than in their own immediate chief, and not willing at this crisis to be absent from his thoughts, desired to transmit to him, through his friend Lord Granby, the expression of their sentiments. Of that overture there is nothing further known to me beyond its mention, as follows, by the King:-"I am extremely "indifferent whether Lord Granby goes or does not go with the abject message of the Rocking"ham party to Hayes: I will certainly send none "to that place."* At this moment, indeed, the King was more than ever incensed against Lord Chatham, from the high claims which the conversations with Lord Shelborne had disclosed. With a spirit as high, His Majesty protested that he would surrender the Crown sooner than stoop to Opposition. He called upon Lord North to answer one plain question,- Will you, like the Duke of Grafton, desert me at the hour of danger? Lord North, in reply, gave the King no hope of his consenting to remain in office permanently, but agreed, if the King should insist upon it, to carry through the present Session to its close. The King next desired that the Attorney-General, Mr. Thurlow, might forthwith be appointed Chancellor, as a preliminary step to the new arrangements. It was plainly His *To Lord North, March 18. 1778. Z 3 1778. CHAP. Majesty's object to continue the same system, LVII. though with other hands. But for that very reason, and with a just sense of his public duty, Lord North was most unwilling to trammel and embarrass his successor, by having first disposed of the Great Seal. It is certain, moreover, that the object of the King was at this juncture wholly unattainable that if Lord North retired as not willing or not able to carry his system further, no other administration on the same system could be formed. Of that fact there can be no stronger evidence than the language of Lord Barrington affords. Lord Barrington was then Secretary at War. Lord Barrington had ever been forward among the party or section of the "King's friends.” King's friends." Yet what are the terms of advice with which we find Lord Barrington, in this very month of March, address His Majesty? "I represented to the King that "he had not one General in whom His Majesty, "the nation, or the army would place confidence, "in case of the invasion of Great Britain or Ire"land, and the necessity there was of bringing "Prince Ferdinand hither. . . . In a subsequent "audience I thought it my duty to represent to "His Majesty the general dismay which prevailed . among all ranks and conditions; arising, as I "apprehended, from an opinion that the adminis"tration was not equal to the times; an opinion so "universal that it prevailed among those who were "most dependent on and attached to the Ministers, CHAP. " and even among the Ministers themselves." * Other testimonies from the same time all point to the same conclusion. The tide in favour of Lord Chatham was setting in too strong to be resisted. Great as was the King's aversion, he must soon have yielded, as, notwithstanding aversions full as great, His Majesty did yield on other occasions, both before and since. It seems to me beyond all doubt, that had Lord Chatham's last and fatal illness been delayed a few weeks, perhaps even a few days longer, he would have been called to the helm of public affairs, and invited, with such friends as he might choose, to solve the problem he had himself propounded-to regain the affections while refusing the independence of America. In that arduous task could Lord Chatham have succeeded? Critics the most opposite have agreed that he could not. "Heaven," says Mr. Croker, spared him the anxiety of the attempt, and, as 66 66 we believe, the mortification of a failure." † Mr. Macaulay argues with much zeal in behalf of Lord Rockingham's views, and considers Lord Chatham's as almost demonstrably fallacious. "Chatham," he says, "had repeatedly, and with great energy of language, declared that it was 66 Private Memorandum, drawn up by Lord Barrington, in March, 1778, and inserted in his Life by the Bishop of Durham (p. 186. unpublished). † Quarterly Review, No. cxxxi. p. 266. June, 1840. LVII. 1778. |