184 PITT AGAIN APPLIED TO. CH. VI. in language firm and decisive, but not stronger than it behoved a minister of state to employ, represented to His Majesty the injustice and ill-effects of bestowing his favours upon persons who were opposed to the confidential advisers of the Crown. The King listened with patience, and merely denied, as he had done to similar insinuations from Grenville, that Lord Bute had been consulted in public affairs.* But objurgation and complaint were in vain emDuke of Cumber. ployed to win back confidence and esteem. land consulted. The King, more than ever disgusted, again had recourse to the unsophisticated loyalty, the experience and discretion of that illustrious member of his house, upon whom he had latterly placed all his reliance. The Duke of Cumberland again appealed to the patriotism of that great subject who alone seemed able to rescue his sovereign and his country from the insolence of faction. Pitt, on this occasion, seems to have laid aside the Failure of the magniloquence which he usually employed, new scheme. and to have met the overtures of the Duke in a frank and earnest spirit. In two interviews with the King, the policy of a new administration to be formed under his auspices, and the men of whom it was to be composed, were agreed upon. Its foreign policy was to be indicated by a renewal of the Prussian alliance; the colonial measures recently adopted were to be entirely changed. In pended entirely on the manner in which it was conveyed. On the whole, though I cannot go as far as Lord John Russell in bestowing unqualified praise upon the Duke's remonstrance, because it was in a great measure rendered unnecessary by the intolerable rigour of the terms which ministers themselves had imposed upon the King; yet, on the other hand, there is no doubt that Bedford firmly believed in the ascendancy of Bute, and considered such conditions indispensable to carry on the Government. *The King assured Sir Gilbert Elliott that he had not spoken to Lord Bute on politics since he left office in 1763. This was no doubt literally true; but it is also certain that Bute continued his political intrigues long after his resignation. 1765. PERVERSE CONDUCT OF TEMPLE. 185 domestic affairs, general warrants were to be abolished, and the cider-tax was to be repealed. Finally, though not perhaps least in importance, in the King's estimation, Mackenzie was to be restored to the sinecure office of which he had been so harshly deprived. The only real obstacle to an arrangement so promising was to be found in the pride and selfishness of one individual, and that obstacle proved fatal to the whole scheme. Pitt was unfortunately bound to Temple by ties of affinity, of friendship and gratitude, which a less noble nature would not have considered indissoluble. Temple had been designated by his brother-in-law for the office of First Lord of the Treasury. But he peremptorily refused bearing any part, great or small, in the proposed administration. He said that reasons of delicacy prevented him. Every consideration was to be sacrificed to the renewed connection with his brother, and to the arrogant conceit which had sprung from it of forming a family cabinet. He was willing to take the first place, but it must be as the chief of a Grenville administration.* Deeply mortified at this undeserved and unexpected failure, Pitt seems to have contemplated withdrawing from public life. He sold his favourite villa near London, and retired to an estate in * Pitt seems to have been unprepared for this result. On the 22nd June, he writes to Temple, to inform him of the progress of the negotiation, and of the frankness and cordiality of the King. But while Pitt was making arrangements in the closet, Temple was in close correspondence with his brother, who records, in his diary, that nothing could be more truly affectionate than Lord Temple's conduct towards him in all this transaction.' About this time, Lord Chesterfield writes to his son,— 'Mr. Pitt would have accepted, but not without Lord Temple's consent, and Lord Temple positively refused. There was evidently some trick in this, but what, is past my conjecture.' The 'trick,' however, is now plain enough. Lady Hervey, who was well informed, speaks, in the preceding March, of the connection between Temple and Pitt having 'given way.'Letters. 186 NEWCASTLE SENT FOR. CH. VI. Somersetshire, which had lately been devised to him by Sir William Pynsent, a gentleman who had been personally unknown to him, but one of the many admirers of his genius and patriotism, scattered through the country. In this remote retreat, he expressed his intention of passing for the most part the remainder of his days. The King sends for Newcastle. The King, determined not to be again remitted to the intolerable yoke of the Bedfords and the Grenvilles, empowered his uncle to open a communication with the old intriguer Newcastle. Eager as ever for patronage and power, the Duke obeyed the summons with alacrity; and as he still retained considerable credit and influence with the Whig party, there was no difficulty in bringing together the principal members of that connection under his auspices. The first question proposed at the meeting which took place, was the expediency of the Whigs coming into office at all under existing circumstances? And this preliminary being decided in the affirmative by the great preponderance of weight as well as numbers, the terms were easily agreed upon. The first article was the one upon which every minister insisted-whether Grenville, Pitt, or Newcastle-as the basis of the arrangement. The Earl of Bute must be removed from Court, and from all interference in affairs of state. But the Whigs went farther. They required that certain particular friends of that nobleman should be removed as a proof to the world that the Earl of Bute should not either publicly or privately, directly or indirectly, have any concern or influence in public affairs or in the management or disposition of public employments.'* They would not even allow an exception in the case of Mr. Mackenzie. They made no other terms. They abstained from entering into any parti *Paper drawn up by Newcastle.-Rockingham Memoirs, vol. i. p. 218. 1765. ROCKINGHAM'S ADMINISTRATION. 187 culars of their proposed measures, no doubt advisedly, that they might mark, in the most emphatic manner, the paramount importance which they attached to the Sovereign's entire dependence upon, and unqualified support of, his responsible ministers. A new adminis members. The conditions were agreed to without hesitation. If the Whigs were possessed chiefly with the idea of entering upon a stage clear of tration and its favouritism, the King, at this time, was intent only on his emancipation from that galling thraldom in which he had been kept ever since his first attempt to set himself free from party connection. The new administration comprised in its principal departments no individual of any official experience, and hardly one of adequate ability. At its head was placed the Marquis of Rockingham, a The Marquis of young nobleman who had been appointed Rockingham. a lord of the bedchamber at the King's accession, and distinguished himself by a spirited remonstrance, when abruptly dismissed from office, with others, for objecting to the peace.* If a high character, a good understanding, a great estate, and exalted rank, were sufficient qualifications for the first minister of this country, the Marquis of Rockingham was as eligible as any other person in the like predicament. But Rockingham, though well-known as a patron of the turf, was a stranger to the nation in the character of a statesman. He was unfortunate also in not possessing the faculty of recommending himself to public confidence by a display of ability in Parliament. Bute had been exposed to derision by the sententious, unpractised style of his oratory. But Rockingham was incapable of making an exposition of any sort, even upon the plainest subject, in the House of Lords. The consequence was, that in this * Ante, p. 125. 188 GENERAL CONWAY'S UNFITNESS CH. VI country, where public speaking passes for so much more than it is worth, Rockingham failed to obtain credit for the information and good sense which he really possessed. General The appointment of the Leader of the House of Commons was one still more unfortunate. General Conway, who had been dismissed from his office in the Household and from his regiment the year before, for voting against the Government on the question of general warrants, was selected for the most important post in the new administration. He was a brave officer and an amiable man, but had hardly any qualification for the management of the House of Commons. It is true that he was not altogether deficient in the power of expressing himself; and in this respect he had the advantage of his coadjutor in the other House of Parliament. But he had to succeed Grenville, who, from long study and experience, was thoroughly acquainted with the House, and was no mean proficient in the art of oratory. He had to fill that position instead of Pitt, by whom the House and the country had hoped and expected that it would have been filled. Conway's intimate friend* has mentioned the repulsive coldness of his manner, and the nice sense of honour, which rendered him unfit for the management of the House of Commons as it was then constituted. So little discrimination was observed in the allotment of places, that it was proposed to make Conway Chancellor of the Exchequer, although he had no knowledge of financial affairs.† He had been reluctant to join an administration in the stability of which he had no confidence; and at length gave a military reason for his acceptance of office-the commands, namely, of His Majesty and the Duke of Cumberland. * Walpole's History, vol. ii. p. 195. † Ibid. |