died suddenly on the 21st of August, and put an end to a triumvirate which had involved their master and themselves in such a labyrinth of knotty and undecided questions.
CHAPTER XX.
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