invited by Mr. Dowdeswell when they were all in the lobby.

"The King was extremely insulted when he went to the House, which I should hope might make him less unconcerned than he seems to be. He carries himself so it is hard to know whether he is concerned or not. A lord who is near him told me, that after the great riot at St. James's, or rather in the midst of it, when he came out to the levée, you could not find out, either in his countenance or his conversation, that everything was not quiet as usual. My notion of the mob is, that it is hired by French money, that D'Eon is a distributor of it, and that Lord Temple and Lord Shelburne encourage it.

You are mistaken in thinking I could be of service if I was consulted, for I really cannot foresee the consequences nor the design of what they are about, and should therefore not know what to advise.

"Mr. Wilkes has quarrelled with his friends, because, he says, they divert the attention of the public from him. They do so, and I believe he is near meeting with his reward—a just contempt as well as abhorrence. But the spirit of disorder, licentiousness, and faction still continues, and whether it will be better or worse for not flowing from Mr. Wilkes's direction, I can't tell. You must observe I don't mention Lord Chatham. Nobody does now, and that is a step, as far as it goes, to your more favourable opinion of him. I believe Lord Temple has been telling lies these three months, and no longer ago than last Sunday, assured several people that Lord Chatham had prevailed to have the

prorogation of Parliament put off for three or four days, and would come down and speak; whereas the poor man has all the time been confined to his room, if not to his bed. If I knew nothing of Lord Temple but this profligate and scandalous lying disposition, I should hate him as I do.

"Except two or three days that I shall go to Kingsgate, I shall be to be found here, and never so happy as when found by you. You may then tell my sons what they desired me to ask you, whether you cared about the Pembrokeshire petition, and what part you would have them to take in it. Did they get any instructions from Pembrokeshire at last? which I see is asserted in the newspapers. If they did not, I think the sheriff should advertise the falsity of it.

"Ever, dear Sir,

"Yours, most obliged and

"Most affectionate,

When Mr. Fox was chosen for Midhurst, and during the whole of the ensuing session of 1768 and 1769, the Duke of Grafton was minister; but even during the early part of that period, although Lord Chatham was nominally his colleague, he had ceased to attend the cabinets, or even to communicate his view of public matters to the Duke of Grafton, who was embarrassed for want of his councils, and alarmed

*The letter is signed by Lord Holland, but written as all or most of his are in 1769, in another hand.

at the absence of his support, and consequently obliged to look for assistance elsewhere, especially as the affair of Wilkes and the Middlesex election grew daily more perplexing and unpopular. He got more and more connected with the Bedfords, and was openly supported, especially in the business of Wilkes, by the family, friends and followers of Lord Holland. On the 12th of October, 1768, Lord Chatham wrote to the [Duke of Grafton, imploring his Majesty's permission to resign the Privy Seal on the score of health, expressing at the same time his resentment at the usage received by his friends Sir Jeffrey Amherst and Lord Shelburne. With much reluctance and after a fruitless attempt from the King to prevail on him to withdraw his resignation, to which he replied by reiterating his supplication to be allowed to resign, his request was complied with.] He then resigned, and Lord Shelburne, to avoid dismission, says Horace Walpole, followed him. Lord Camden, Lord Chatham's friend, remained Chancellor; and Lord Bristol, reputed so hitherto, was appointed Privy Seal; and Lord Rochford Secretary of State. Lord Chatham was soon after, through the means, says Walpole, of Calcraft, reconciled to Lord Temple and Mr. Grenville, and in opposition. Such was the state of parties when Mr. Fox first entered Parliament and took a part in the debates.-V. H.

I am not sure through what interest Lord Holland bought, as I am confident he must have done, the seat at Midhurst. But Mr. Fox came in for that borough, no doubt, in the character of a supporter of

Government, and his father was throughout 1768 and 1769, not only on the side of Government, but a bitter and eager opponent of Mr. Wilkes, as may be inferred from the votes of his sons and from his own private letters.

[Among many letters indicating the political tendency of Lord Holland's opinions at this period, the following extract from one of his letters to Mr. Campbell of Cawdor deserves insertion. It shows under what political impressions Mr. Fox made his entrance into public life, and it is curious, besides, as a just tribute to Lord Chatham from his old political rival and opponent. It was written from Nice, on the 20th of April, 1768, at the time when the return of Mr. Wilkes from exile had been followed by his first election for Middlesex.]—"Irresolution," Lord Holland observes, "has been a general fault, and is surely a most fatal weakness. I think Pitt almost the only man that I have scen in power, who had not that fault, though he had many others; for which reason I wish he were again well, and for the first time in my life, should be glad to see him at the head of everything, undertaking to stem that torrent which he has so long and so much contributed to swell." [Pitt did get well, but he took a part directly opposite to that which Lord Holland seems to have anticipated.]

[Lord Holland and his sons took a warm and active part in support of Colonel Luttrel. Stephen Fox proposed him on the hustings, and at Holland House a great breakfast had been prepared for the troop of

gentlemen who were to have escorted him to Brentford; but a mob that assembled before his father, Lord Irnham's door, compelled these gallants to disperse and make their escape, as they could, by breaking an opening through the garden-wall behind the house. This prominent and undisguised opposition to their idol exasperated the city and the populace against Lord Holland and his family. Petitions and denunciations from the Middlesex electors, letters and speeches from the Lord Mayor and Alderman Beckford, threats from the Livery, and instructions given to their representatives to institute a parliamentary inquiry into the conduct of Lord Holland, and, if matter was found, to impeach him, followed in succession, but as Horace Walpole* concludes his account of these transactions, "it came to nothing," and their silence cleared him.]

[On the 9th of October following, Lord and Lady Holland, with their sons, Charles and Henry, went abroad with Lady Cecilia Lennox (Lady Holland's sister), who had been ordered to the continent for her health. She was unable to proceed farther south than Paris, where she died on the 13th of November. The rest of the party remained at Paris till the end of the year, when Charles and Henry returned to England, and Lord and Lady Holland went on to Nice. During his stay at Paris, Mr. Fox made himself remarked for his losses at play. His mother appears, from her correspondence, to have been elated with the fashionable society in which he lived, but if

*MS. Memoirs.