HE ADDRESSES HIMSELF TO FOX.

stood prominently forward as candidates for office, to accept it on such terms. He dared not hint such a proposition to Pitt, and the King's known repugnance to that statesman was an obstacle, the force of which he himself had fully acknowledged. Murray firmly refused any office out of the line of professional promotion. There remained only Fox, who, though the least able, was the most eligible of the three. Public opinion had designated him as the probable successor of Pelham; and he had, what the others wanted, a large political following.

Ch. 1.

1753

13

dresses himself

To Fox, therefore, the Duke addressed himself, Newcastle adthrough the agency of a common friend, the to Fox. Marquis of Hartington, afterwards Duke of Devonshire. The terms were unusually liberal: the Secretaryship of State, a seat in the Cabinet, the lead of the House of Commons, and, above all, information as to the expenditure of the Secret Service Money. This fund was then the key to political power, being chiefly employed in purchasing boroughs and bribing members of parliament. By these means, Newcastle had procured a House of Commons subservient to his purposes; and now, at the eve of a new election, it was more than ever important to retain a firm hold of this potent instrument of corruption. But no sooner had he made his proposal to Fox, than he began to fear he had parted with too large a share of power, and he hastened to qualify his offer. "He had meant," he said, "to keep the disposal of the Secret Service Money to himself." Fox, with his strong

14

Ch. 1.

1753

Negotiations

with Fox.

FAILURE OF

sense, immediately pointed out the inconvenience of such reserve. "How was he to manage the House of Commons, unless he knew who had been bribed and who had not?" But remonstrance and reason were in vain addressed to the Duke of Newcastle. A panic had seized him for the loss of power; and he resolved to retain the secret service, the patronage of office, and the nomination of ministerial boroughs entirely in his own hands.

It was hardly possible for any man of spirit to accept high responsible office upon such conditions. But Fox was not scrupulous, and never thought of hastily breaking off the negociation upon anything like a punctilio. He consulted his friends, however, and finding them unanimous against his assent to Newcastle's proposal, he wrote to the Duke, resigning the seals which he had agreed to accept the day before, on Hartington's commission. The duke, delighted no doubt at being relieved from a colleague who, instead of an official hack, threatened to turn out a formidable competitor for power, would have no more to do with statesmen and orators, but forthwith conferred the seals of office upon Sir Thomas Robinson, a diplomatist whose knowledge of public affairs was confined to the petty politics of the German courts, in which he had practised. Το conciliate Pitt, places were given to his only followers, Sir George Lyttelton and Grenville. Murray was satisfied by the appointment of attorneygeneral, which happily then became vacant. Pitt and Fox consented to remain in subordinate office;

NEWCASTLE'S ADMINISTRATION.

the new Parliament was constituted pretty much as its predecessor had been, and the duke and his royal master congratulated themselves on the satisfactory settlement which had been effected.

Ch. 1.

1753

among the

15

Such an adjustment of places could, however, Quarrels hardly be durable. Pitt and Fox made common new ministers. cause against a ministry which excluded them from a prominent position. The paymaster of the forces assailed the attorney-general; the secretary-at-war turned the leader of the House of Commons into ridicule; or, as was observed by a spectator, assisted him in performing that office for himself. Acts of insubordination and mutiny, which had been visited, from the highest to the lowest, with prompt and unmitigated severity, when an imperial mind directed the councils of the nation, were now perpetrated with utter impunity, under the weak, irresolute rule of the successors of Walpole. The policy of cowardice and incapacity was resorted to. Overtures were again made to one of the powerful malcontents, through the medium of the Earl Waldegrave, a nobleman who stood high in the estimation of all parties, and possessed what hardly any other public man at that time could boast of, the confidence of the King.

Waldegrave represented to Newcastle the impossibility of carrying on the government against the alliance of the two great parliamentary chieftains; and he sought to attach Fox to the administration on terms still less favourable than those last offered by the duke, by assuring him that there was no

16

Ch. 1.

1755

Preparations

for war.

the king.

PREPARATIONS FOR WAR.

disposition to engage his services in the highest quarter. Fox, whose appetite for power was not easily disgusted, consented, under such circumstances, to take a seat in the cabinet, without the post of secretary of state, and without the recognised lead of the House of Commons.

Events soon occurred to try the vigour and administrative ability of the re-constructed government. The ancient enmity of France and England threatened an immediate outbreak. The race for empire, which had already commenced on the vast continent of Asia, and on that of the New World, had become bitter contention, and war was inevitable.

Early in 1755, the House of Commons received Supineness of a message from the crown, asking for a vote of credit, to put the establishments on a war footing. This was readily granted; and the king shortly after left the country on his annual visit to Hanover. The impropriety of absenting himself from the seat of empire under such circumstances, was in vain urged upon a selfish and un-English sovereign. The unsettled state of affairs at home, the commencement of war, the weakness of the ministry, were considerations which could not outweigh the personal predilections and convenience of the German king. In peaceful times, a great nation will maintain its prosperity in spite of the supineness and incapacity of its rulers, to whom, in consequence, a thoughtless public opinion attributes the praise of wise government. But when a state

PREPARATIONS FOR IT.

The

of war demands active and decided measures, the real character of administration is discovered. imbecility of the person who held the first place in the Council of St. James's, therefore, now became signally manifest. The British interests at the Court of France, then the most important, if not the only important diplomatic post in Europe, had been for many years entrusted to a fop; and thus, those delicate questions of colonial territory which were in dispute between the two Governments, and which might have been adjusted by a wise and skilful negotiation, were necessarily referred to the disastrous arbitrement of war.

Ch. 1.

1755

sures of the

17

Yet, while the dire necessity was recognised, the Timid meaoperations were undertaken with a hesitation and ministry. timidity which augured little for the success or glory of England; and, what was worse, were characterized by a futile dissimulation, which cast a stain upon her honour. An expedition was sent out after a French fleet, supposed to be destined for North America. An engagement took place, resulting in the capture of two French ships of the line, and the withdrawal of the French ambassador from London. Then was the time that a declaration of war ought to have been made by this country. But a second expedition was dispatched under Sir Edward Hawke, whose instructions were the subject of ridiculous and contemptible perplexity to the government. Newcastle proposed a course by which the responsibility should be shifted from the ministry upon the brave officer in command.