Читать книгу The History of King George the Third - Horace Walpole - Страница 24

Table of Contents

Perplexity of the “Triumvirate.”—Lord Bute’s unsuccessful Manœuvres.—Lord Halifax and Mr. Grenville remonstrate with the King.—The Duchess of Bedford’s animosity to Lord Bute and the Princess of Wales.—Schemes of the Bedford Faction.—Mr. Pitt sent for by the King.—Negotiation with the former.—The Treaty broken off.—Causes of the Rupture.—The King’s Account of his Interviews with Pitt.—Pitt’s Proposals.—Proscriptions.—Machinations of Lord Sandwich.—Ministerial Arrangements.—Grenville’s Power.—Lord Temple’s Conduct.

But it was not the affair of Wilkes which had alone perplexed the Triumvirate. They found they were by no means in the confidence of the King. He was continually suggesting new measures to them, which plainly came from a hidden quarter. A fortnight before the death of Lord Egremont, his Majesty had hinted to Grenville that he wished to prevail on Lord Hardwicke to return, if not to his service, at least to his councils. Whether the blow received from the Common Pleas had alarmed the Favourite (who had made but a very short stay at Harrowgate), and had warned him to look out for more support; or whether he thought the three ministers insufficient; or whether, which is most likely, he wished already to get rid of them, especially having detected the underhand practices of Grenville against his son’s patent;—in short, whatever was the motive, Grenville could not be ignorant who was author of the advice, and only replied, it would not do. The King insisted, and the overture was made; Hardwicke rejected it, and said he would not abandon Newcastle. The King then commanded the same trial to be made on Newcastle, but with exclusion of Mr. Pitt; an early proof of those crooked councils of division with which the Favourite was afterwards so often charged, and which were so agreeable to the King’s natural insincerity. Newcastle haughtily refused the offers made to him. Still were the King’s discourses dark and ambiguous; and, though affecting to call out for new strength by extending preferments, he had refused, at Grenville’s recommendation, to make the Duke of Leeds350 President of the Council, and Lord Hyde351 Chief Justice in Eyre.

On this behaviour the three ministers had determined to bring his Majesty to an explanation. Lord Halifax broke the ice; complained of their not having his countenance, and concluded with telling him that he had but three options: to support them; to try a coalition of parties, which was impracticable; or to surrender himself, bound hand and foot, to Mr. Pitt. Mr. Grenville went much farther; reproached him with violating the assurances he had given them that Lord Bute should meddle no more, and with abandoning the ministers he had himself chosen. The King renewed his professions, and promised to be firm to them. Grenville said he should go into the country for a fortnight, and begged the King to take his final resolution against that time. At Grenville’s return the King had renewed his protestations, and, the very day before Lord Egremont died, Grenville had been to assure him of the King’s promise to be true to them; but, on the 25th, Grenville, through great professions to him, perceived that his Majesty was not without a disposition of recalling Pitt, against which Grenville made a warm, not to say indecent, remonstrance and protest.

The Bedfords in the interim had totally renounced Bute. The Duchess had carried her animosity still higher, and would not, on her return from the French embassy, be prevailed on to pay her duty to the Princess of Wales. Casting about for allies (for Grenville and Lord Halifax they despised), the Bedford faction had not been without views of connecting with the Duke of Cumberland and Newcastle; and his Royal Highness had at this very juncture been invited to Woburn. The death of Lord Egremont seeming to dissolve that ministry, a bolder stroke was struck; and the Bedfords, hoping under him to get possession of the government, determined to attempt making Mr. Pitt minister. With this view Rigby, in the most private and mysterious manner, went down to Woodstock, and sent for the Duke of Bedford, who was then at Blenheim, and persuaded him to go directly to town to the King, and advise him to send for Mr. Pitt.352 Lord Shelburne, who in his separate department had affected to act minister too, had assured them that this would not be opposed by Lord Bute; but had not trusted them, or was not trusted himself, with Lord Bute’s real disposition that way. Rigby had no sooner lighted the match than he left the mine to take fire, and retired to his own house in the country; while the Duke of Bedford posted to the King, and told him, that, as he had made peace abroad, he must now make it at home, and that could only be effected by sending for Mr. Pitt.

Lord Bute, hearing this measure had been prescribed by the Duke of Bedford, thought it wiser to have the merit of it himself. Mr. Pitt, though trusting to the clamour of party for support, had seldom openly courted it; and, since he had had such eminent services to boast, had affected to despise it. He had kept clear of all transactions with Wilkes, and had condemned Lord Temple’s connection with him, and, yet more, his visits to that incendiary in the Tower. Mr. Pitt’s amity might reconcile the people, and no man was so accommodating a partner in power; Pitt having few or no dependents, and scorning to meddle in the distribution of common places and preferments. On these grounds the Favourite, through the intervention of Alderman Beckford, entered into a negotiation with Mr. Pitt, and, finding facilities there beyond his most sanguine hopes, induced the King to send for that formidable dictator.

It was on the 28th of August that Mr. Grenville, arriving at Buckingham House, was struck with the apparition of Mr. Pitt’s chair and servants in the Court. This was the first notice he or the public received of a phenomenon so little expected, at least by the latter.

Let it be remarked here, that I do not pretend to give a perfect and entire account of the following negotiation. No transaction was ever involved in more contradictions and mystery; for, though the retainers of both sides spoke out, and amply, their narratives disagreed materially, and the exact truth was never fully known. From all I could collect then or since, and from explanations which I have gathered by commenting on the subsequent behaviour of the actors, I believe the ensuing relation is pretty near the truth.

The Bedfords had sent Calcraft to Hayes353 to sound how Mr. Pitt stood affected to them, and Calcraft returned with a most favourable account. On this assurance had the Duke of Bedford been pushed on the measure of advising the recall of Mr. Pitt. Lord Bute had not been less encouraged by the report of Alderman Beckford, for Mr. Pitt had determined, if ever he should return to Court, not to make himself unwelcome there. The Favourite, therefore, saw him privately at his house in Jermyn-street before he saw the King, and advised him not to propose Lord Temple for the Treasury, which would break off the negotiation. Pitt thanked him, but did not take his advice,—and on this rock undoubtedly did the treaty split; for all the variations I have hinted at, were but circumstances artfully seized or feigned to colour the rupture, or misrepresent it.

The Favourite deceived, or deceiving himself, brought about the interview, as I have said, between the King and Mr. Pitt. It lasted three hours, and the bargain was universally thought concluded. But the King had not only been revolted at Mr. Pitt’s terms, though without owning it, but Mr. Pitt had had the sagacity to discover his Majesty’s repugnance; and therefore not only carried on the farce of returning to Court the next day, but was so dexterous as to see the Duke of Newcastle, with whose interests he had by no means clogged his first demands; and assuring his Grace of his zeal for his service, went back to the King with a schedule of terms extremely enlarged. These were peremptorily rejected, and the treaty broke off, on pretences which the one had not meaned to ask, nor the other cared whether he granted or refused. The Treasury for Lord Temple was the real stone of offence.354

But no sooner was the rupture known, than all tongues were let loose to inquire, guess, invent, or assign causes. The King detailed his conversation with Mr. Pitt to all that came about him—and almost all added to it, as their interest or malice suggested. Mr. Pitt saw very few, and to fewer would disclose any circumstances. He soon found that he could not speak without flatly contradicting what his Majesty had said, or was reported to have said. No wonder the transaction came forth loaded with uncertainties and inconsistence!

The substance reported was, that Mr. Pitt had proscribed almost all the ministry then existing, and yet had been very cool in recommendations of the Opposition. The first part was not very credible, for though his haughtiness rendered him indifferent to those who affected to call themselves his party, his nature, on the other hand, was not vindictive: and it was true, that he had not been worse treated by the one set than by the other. On his second audience, I believe it might be true to a good degree that he had been dictatorial; but at first he had been far more moderate. However, it was given out that he proscribed all who had made, or had voted for the peace: whereas he had spoken tenderly of some of the negotiators; and had said of the treaty itself, that he would take it, and make the best he could of it.

The King himself relating the two conversations, took care to dwell on any circumstances that would most affect the persons to whom he made the confidence. Thus, to Lord Hertford, at that time Lord of the Bedchamber in waiting, the King said, “Mr. Pitt proscribed several, particularly your friend Lord Powis:355 I told him, continued his Majesty, that he might restore Lord George Cavendish;356 but Lord Powis had stuck by me, and I never would abandon him.357 I will stand by those who have stood by me. He said little,” continued the King, “of Legge (another of Lord Hertford’s friends, consequently the King intended Legge should be informed), only, having recommended Lord Temple for the Treasury, Mr. Pitt said, Mr. Legge may be his Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he pleases—if not, Lord Temple will name another. He surprised me,” pursued the King to Lord Hertford, “with saying still less of your relation the Duke of Grafton; and more, with crying up to me for one of the first men of business in the kingdom, Lord Rockingham,358 whom he intended for First Lord of the Admiralty. I thought,” said his Majesty, “I had not two men in my bedchamber of less parts than Lord Rockingham.” The King spoke handsomely of both the Dukes of Grafton and Devonshire, and laid his treatment of the latter on passion, that Duke not having made the least excuse for not coming to council when he had been summoned. Knowing that Lord Hertford was not well with Fox, the King affirmed that he had taken the latter last winter against his inclination; and he told Lord Hertford that the Duke of Newcastle had urged the Duke of Bedford to make a worse peace than Mr. Pitt had projected, and had promised to defend it: and that the Duke of Devonshire had recommended to the Duke of Bedford to make any peace; and then, fearing to be reproached with that advice, always avoided conversation with that Duke. “When he took leave of me,” added the King, “Mr. Pitt said to me, Sir, the House of Commons will not force me upon your Majesty, and I will never come into your service against your consent.” “You see,” said Lord Hertford, when he repeated this conversation to me, “that if they did not shut the King up, he would talk enough to any body!”—but if they sometimes debarred him from talking, he was now instructed to talk—and every grain he sowed brought forth an hundred-fold.

I must observe that his Majesty had told Lady Holland, in the drawing-room, that he should never forget Mr. Fox’s undertaking the House of Commons and the Peace in the last winter. It is certain that in this interview with Mr. Pitt, the King proposed to take the Paymaster’s place from Fox, and bestow it on George Grenville.

Of the persons really proscribed, the chief was Lord Mansfield. “He is a Jacobite,” said Pitt, “and means sir, to ruin your family.” He recommended Pratt for a peerage, and in future for the Chancellor’s Seals; would have saved the Duke of Marlborough, as a young man misled; Elliot, for having tried to preserve union between him and Lord Bute; and of Lord Halifax he had said, “that he was a pretty man, and, as in bad circumstances, might be Groom of the Stole or Paymaster.” “The Duke of Newcastle,” he said, “would take any place not of business.” Charles Townshend he proposed for Secretary of State with himself. The Secretary at War should not be of consequence, as it was now under Ellis,359 that clerk of Fox the Paymaster, but should depend on him whom his Majesty should think proper to command his army. “Then,” said the King, “we shall agree in Lord Granby;” “or,” said Pitt, “in Lord Albemarle.”360 This was the sole approach he seemed to make towards the Duke of Cumberland; but never would his Majesty have trusted his army with a creature of his uncle.

Of Lord Gower Pitt spoke not favourably, having probably discovered that it was the way to make his court to the Favourite, who, having perceived that that Lord aimed at being a favourite himself, had taken care to alienate the King’s mind from him. Rigby was not excepted for mercy,361 and Lord Sandwich much less. Of the Duke of Bedford Mr. Pitt spoke properly, as of a man well-intentioned, but shamefully misguided, and who might hereafter, if in proper hands, be useful to Government. But nothing harsh did Pitt utter against the peace: he would try to meliorate it. Should a national spirit of inquiry arise, he would not resist it. He had held the same language formerly on the loss of Minorca: they were specious words then and now, but with no sanguinary intentions.

When Calcraft was reproached by the Bedford faction with having deceived them on Pitt’s disposition towards them, he could not evade the charge. A breach ensued, and he remained attached to Mr. Pitt.

Sandwich, finding himself proscribed by Pitt, made advantage of the moment, and exerting all his invention and industry, of which no man possessed a larger receipt, he set himself to persuade men of all denominations that they had been marked in black letters in the dictator’s catalogue of pains and penalties. He even drew every man’s character to himself, and selecting their faults or deficiencies, ascribed to Mr. Pitt both the recapitulation and imaginary sentence that followed it. Grenville and Lord Halifax caught the righteous flame, and diffused it: Grenville even assembling the Commissioners of the several boards, and assuring them, one and all, that they had been condemned by Mr. Pitt to be cashiered. To Woburn, where the Duke of Bedford was at this anxious moment detained by his royal visitor, the Duke of Cumberland, Lord Sandwich wrote inflammatory letters, telling Bedford that he was proscribed, and his peace to be attacked. The warm little Duke caught fire; but Rigby, to whom Sandwich had made the same report, doubted, and came to town, where he was either duped into, or persuaded to join in the imposition.

Grenville was pressed by the King to remain minister, and did not want to be pressed. The Duke of Bedford, in the hot fit of zeal and resentment, accepted the post of President; and Shelburne, who had shuffled round the compass with so ill success, and lost the favour of Lord Bute, choosing now to adhere to Pitt, and resigning the seals, they were bestowed on the only man who could replace, or excel him, Lord Sandwich. It was fortunate for Grenville and union, that the faction did not wish to place the Duke of Bedford at the head of the Treasury,—but they could not trust his warmth and absurdities. In Ireland he had disgusted everybody, and had gone so far as to tell the Irish themselves that theirs was no Parliament. The Court had wished to have Charles Townshend Secretary of State with Lord Halifax; but he too, for that time, stuck to Mr. Pitt, and refused.

Thus, from a strange concurrence of jarring causes, there sprung up out of great weakness a strong and cemented ministry, who all acquiesced in the predominant power of Grenville. The Favourite hated, had tried to shake him off, and he knew it. How much must his brother Temple have been detested at Court, when, under all these humiliating aspects, it was thought preferable to retain Grenville!

In truth, nothing could be more offensive than Lord Temple’s conduct, whether considered in a public or private light. Opposition to his factious views seemed to let him loose from all ties, all restraint of principles. Of the truth of this assertion he, at the time I am describing, gave a convincing proof. His brother George was at that moment the object of his jealousy and resentment. He had, however, been prevailed upon by his family, or rather by considerations of family, to suffer Mr. Grenville to be rechosen for Buckingham; but on this sole condition, that Mr. Grenville should give up a paper formerly received from him. When Dr. Lyttelton, Bishop of Carlisle,362 who had negotiated this treaty, gave him the paper, he said, after reading it, “It is true, I am bound in honour and by promise to make a firm entail of my estate,—I will; but it shall be on my brother James.”363 The case was this: it had been discovered during the life of their uncle, the late Lord Cobham, that he had made a flaw in the settlement of his estate. A meeting of his nephews was held in the presence of his sister,364 and their mother, the late Lady Temple. She said, “My son Richard is ill with my brother; if we tell my brother of this flaw, he may make a new settlement, and give his fortune from my eldest son.” George Grenville consented to keep the secret, provided his brother gave him the most solemn promise in writing to resettle the estate when he should come to it. Insensible to such a tie, and filled with rancour, he had the mortification of seeing that very brother preserved in power merely to his exclusion.

Other persons preferred on the new settlement were Lord Egmont to the head of the Admiralty, and Lord Hyde to be joint-Postmaster.