68

Ch. 2. 1760

Lord Bute.

CONDUCT OF LORD BUTE.

Neither was the conduct of the Earl of Bute, the reputed author and manager of this abstruse policy Conduct of consistent with the part attributed to him. Instead of keeping in the back ground, and retaining the direction of that secret interior cabinet, in which alone real power was to reside, he put himself forward with intemperate haste as a candidate for that exposed and prominent post which is the object of a statesman's legitimate ambition. He was sworn of the Privy Council the day after the King's accession. At the first opportunity, he became Secretary of State; and a few months later, he assumed the name and office of First Minister. All this time his language and conduct were those of a High Tory. So far from seeking to dissemble his master's views, he astonished and alarmed the Duke of Newcastle by quoting the King's personal pleasure as a reason for everything that was done or ordered to be done. He named the court candidates at the general election; and rated the First Lord of the Admiralty for having presumed to dispose of the Admiralty boroughs without the King's express directions. All this might be arrogant and unconstitutional, but nothing surely could be farther removed from subtle intrigue and clandestine management.

The King's treatment of Bute.

Bute and his system were unpopular; the vulgar clamour, however, was raised, not against the unconstitutional chief of a dark cabal, but against the

f Dodington's Diary.

HIS SYSTEM UNPOPULAR.

Ch. 2.

upstart Scot, the favourite, the minion of the Princess-mother. Yet the scandal implied by the latter epithet appears to have had no other foundation than the fact, that Bute had been for many years the confidential friend of the Princess, and the chief officer of her household. Neither was Bute a favourite in the odious sense which history attaches to that term, although the jealousy and rage of faction did not hesitate to countenance such a prejudice. The King had, from his earliest years, been taught that his first duty as a sovereign was to cast off the thraldom in which his grandfather had been held by political combinations. Bute had no doubt inculcated this precept; and it was almost a matter of course that the chief political instructor of George the Third should be the minister on whose counsel and aid he first relied in bringing the new system of government into operation. To this extent Lord Bute enjoyed favour and credit; but when he proved incompetent to the task he had undertaken, the King cast him aside and sought for abler services. It is now well ascertained that, instead of being the ruling genius of a court cabal for years subsequent to his retirement from office, Bute had scarcely any communication with the court after that period, and complained, not without reason, of the King's neglect and ingratitude.

1760

69

tion with

His nation, indeed, could not be denied; and His connecwas perhaps a more serious offence than his sup- Scotland. posed favour with the King or the Princess.

70

Ch 2.

1760

LORD BUTE'S ANTECEDENTS.

Twice during the century, almost during an existing generation, had the countrymen of Bute risen in arms against England, and menaced the capital itself with an irruption of barbarians. Nor was the misfortune of his birth redeemed by personal merit. The Earl of Bute had passed some of the best years of his life in domestic retirement, and in a remote part of these islands. In 1750, he was appointed to the household of the Prince of Wales; and, after Frederick's death, he continued in the service, and rose high in the confidence of the Princess. He was the channel of communication between Leicester House and the eminent public men with whom it was the interest of that little court to maintain friendly relations; but with none of whom does it appear that he obtained credit for any political capacity. Lord Bute had once, for a short time-soon after he became of age-filled an accidental vacancy in the representation of the Peers of Scotland. Since that period he had not sat in Parliament. At the dissolution, which necessarily ensued on the demise of the Crown, he was again returned to the House of Lords as a representative peer, and took his seat in that assembly where he had never uttered a word, and of which he had little or no experience virtually, as Prime Minister. Such a position was of itself unprecedented. Good sense, under these circumstances, would have dictated the plainest, most unLord Bute assuming style of oratory in transacting the public business. Bute, however, affected a solemn, sen

as an orator.

CHANGES IN THE MINISTRY.

tentious elocution, than which nothing could be more foreign to the tone and taste of an English Parliament. A knowledge of affairs would nevertheless have overcome even this formidable disadvantage. But his matter was as jejune as his manner was ridiculous. The process of reducing an able and powerful cabinet to a junto of loyal and subservient placemen was then commenced.

Ch. 2.

1760

71

the ministry.

No change of importance, however, was made Changes in before the dissolution of parliament in the ensuing spring. Legge, the most experienced financier of the day, was then dismissed; and Lord Barrington, who had no other pretension to the office than devotion to the King, succeeded him as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Charles Townshend, a man of brilliant parts, but whose habitual levity of conduct, and want of judgment, seemed to exemplify the favourite maxim of office politicians, that men of genius are unfitted for business, was appointed Secretary at War. Bute himself, long intent upon high office, became Secretary of State in the room of Lord Holdernesse, whom he had induced to resign by the offer of a rich sinecure for life.

It must have been long since manifest to Pitt that his power was at an end. Even on the first day of the new reign, he was kept waiting two hours before the King admitted him to an audience. He afterwards had an interview with Bute who offered him his protection; but Pitt plainly intimated, though with profuse expressions of loyalty,

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Ch. 2.

1761

LORD BUTE'S POLICY.

that he would be satisfied with nothing less than the entire direction of the war; and they parted with mutual reserve and distrust. He was not even consulted in the preparation of the King's speech either to the council or to parliament. The great minister, however, determined not to give the Court the advantage by a precipitate resignation, awaited the event with dignity and temper. He was not kept long in doubt as to the policy of the Peace-policy new system. Bute, with a portentous ignorance of public opinion, fancied that he should win popularity to the side of the Court by putting a summary period to the war, and was only afraid lest Pitt, or some other statesman, should anticipate him in this master-stroke of policy.

of the Earl of Bute.

The royal

speech to the council.

So eager was he to affect this object, that in the speech to be delivered by the King to the Privy Council, on his accession, and which was framed by Bute alone, without consulting any of the responsible advisers of the Crown, the war was referred to as a bloody and expensive war,' speedily to terminate in an honourable and lasting peace.' Such were the terms in which the Groom of the Stole thought fit to speak of that great struggle, which had raised the country from a state of dejection at once perilous and despicable to a position of honour and safety. And it was not without the greatest difficulty that Pitt himself, to whom it properly

8 Lord J. Russell's Introduction to vol. iii. of Bedford Correspondence.