LETTER CCCXCVII.

March 10, 1783.

I BEGAN a letter to you yesterday sevennight, intending to send it away the next day: so I did on Friday, by which time I concluded a new Administration would be settled. That is not just the case yet; and therefore I have laid aside my commenced letter (which, however, you may get some time or other,) and begin another-just to stay your stomach till I can tell you something positive. To-day I shall not utter a word of politics, as they might be addled by to

morrow.

My old aunt, and your old acquaintance, Lady Walpole, died yesterday morning, at past eighty-seven.* She has been quite blind for some years; but so well, that, having a fever last year of which she recovered, she said it was the first money she had ever laid out with an apothecary for herself. I sat an hour with her three weeks ago, and never saw her look better, nor possess her senses more.

Another person you once knew, died at the same time in a more dismal way- l'Anglaise. Mr. Skrine shot himself; they say, from distressed circumstances.

Tuesday, 11th.

My vow of not uttering a word of politics being confined in the literal sense to yesterday, I shall open my pen's mouth again so far as to tell you that the Interministerium still exists, as far as Nonentity is a Being. Do not imagine that we feel any inconvenience from the Administration wanting a Head. Every thing goes on more quietly for that defect. The Parliament sits-business is done without obstruction, for nobody can be opposed when there is nobody to be opposed; the inference, I doubt, is, that a Minister is opposed, not for what he does, but for what he is. In the fable of Æsop, the Head and Members were starved out when they would not feed the Belly here we now find, that if the Belly and Members are well crammed, they can jog on mighty comfortably without the head.

The newspapers will tell you, that tenders of the first place have been made to various persons, who have declined it, and that a veto has been put on the only person who is ready to accept. These reports I neither affirm nor deny; for I know nothing but town-talk. You would naturally ask me, "But what do you believe?" I reply, "Nothing!" When people are quite ignorant of what is doing, in

* In 1720, Horatio, first Lord Walpole of Wolterton, married Mary Magdalen, daughter and co-heiress of Peter Lombard, Esq., of Burnham Thorpe, in the county of Norfolk, with whom he obtained a considerable fortune. She survived her husband twenty-six years. Towards the latter part of her life, she lost her sight, a misfortune which she is said to have borne with extreme serenity.-En.

The Duke of Portland. This long suspense was occasioned by the King's unwillingness to take the Duke of Portland and the old Whigs for Ministers.

stead of confessing their ignorance, they coin knowledge and invent something that others at least may believe. Thus I have been told positively for this last fortnight of so many premiers being appointed, that at last I have determined to disbelieve any thing I hear, but to believe nothing. In that suspense I leave you for the present. Excepting a million of lies, you know as much as the whole town of London does; and, if there are half a dozen of truths amid that inundation of falsehoods, my spectacles are not good enough to discriminate the precious stones from the counterfeits; and, as I am too old to wear jewels, it is pretty indifferent to me which are diamonds, and which Bristol-stones. I only take care not to send you bits of glass. Adieu!

LETTER CCCXCVIII.

Sunday, March 2, 1783.

[THIS is the letter mentioned in the preceding to have been begun, but it was not sent away till March 18th.]

It is not quite new in this country, though not so frequent as in your neighbourhood, to see a sede vacante; here, I call it an Interministerium. There is this difference between the two vacuums; at Rome, the pretence is, that the Holy Ghost does not know its own mind till the majority fixes it. Here, the majority has decided; but inspiration has not yet given the fiat. As even what passes within the Conclave is known, or guessed, or reported falsely; so here people pretend to account for the present hiatus in government. I do not warrant what I am going to tell you; only send you the creed of the day.

Lord Shelburne resigned the Treasury last Monday, and the Duke of Portland was ready to take his place; being named thereto by the united factions of the Cardinals, Fox and North. The Holy Ghost is said to be highly displeased with that junction; and, instead of imposition of hands on the elect, offered the ministerial tiara to the juvenile Cardinal, William Pitt; who, after pondering in his heart so effulgent a Call, and not finding his vocation ratified by a majority of the Sacred College, humbly declined the splendid nomination on Thursday last. Clouds and darkness have hung over the

*The consequence of the two divisions upon the Peace was, that Lord Shelburne and the rest of the Ministers resigned their offices, or declared themselves ready to do so, as soon as their successors should be fixed upon; and it became necessary that a new Administration should be formed. The King was very reluctant to ap ply to Lord North and Mr. Fox, the union between whom could not but be highly displeasing to his Majesty. He was therefore induced to propose to Mr. Pitt to succeed Lord Shelburne as First Lord of the Treasury. "This," says the Bishop of Winchester," was a most dazzling offer to so young a man, and demanded, both

last two days.-Here I pause till the sky clears: at present, I know no more than the Pope of Rome what is doing.

Wednesday night, 5th.

This letter, which was to have speeded to you last night, could not get its complement, the political atmosphere being still overcast. Cardinal North was summoned to the Vatican on Monday,* where much entreaty was used to detach him from his new confederation, but in vain; and he was dismissed with a declaration, that any terms should be granted, except the disbursement of St. Peter's pence by the Head of a heretical faction. The Cardinal had another short audience last night, with as little effect. This morning, it is said, the young Cardinal I mentioned, and two others, have been closeted; and there ends the second part of this interlude, as far as I know. If things remain in suspense till Friday night, I shall still withhold this: you had better remain in negative than in positive uncertainty, unless your nephew gives you any hint. For my part, I do not choose, at such a crisis, to divulge our bickerings, though they can be no secret.

March 13th.

I began this letter, as you perceive, a fortnight ago; but we have remained in such confusion till yesterday, that truly I did not care to give you an account that might delight foreigners, and would give you an anxiety that I could neither remove, nor cared to explain. I shall now send you a few lines to-morrow, that will make you easy by announcing a settlement; but, as your nephew will set out for Florence next week, I will commit this to him; which will give you a fuller explanation, though it will be longer before you receive it.

upon private and public grounds, the most serious consideration. By far the greater number of the friends whom he consulted, advised him to accept the offer; but, after reflecting upon the opposition which he must experience from the two numerous and powerful parties at the head of which were Lord North and Mr. Fox, he was convinced there was no prospect of his obtaining that degree of support in Parliament, without which no Administration can be effective or beneficial to the country, and therefore felt himself under an imperious obligation to decline the offer." This offer was made on the 24th of February, and on the following day Mr. Dundas moved, that the House of Commons should adjourn to the 28th; the object of which motion, though not avowed, the Bishop states to have been, to give time to Mr. Pitt to consider his Majesty's offer; and it was carried by a majority of 49 to 37. The following passages from Mr. Wilberforce's Diary throw light on what took place in the interval: "Feb. 24th. Dined at Pitt's: heard of the very surprising proposition. 25th. Ministry still undecided. Townshend called, and in vain persuaded Pitt to take it. 29th. The chariot to 28th. Ministers still unappointed. T. Wimbledon Pitt, &c., to dinner, and sleep. Nothing settled."

:

March 3rd. This evening, or on Sunday evening, the King sent for Lord North, having previously seen Lord Guilford, and they parted on bad terms; Rex refusing to take Charles Fox, and North to give him up. 5th. King saw North a second time. Both continue stout. 12th. This day Lord North was commissioned, being sent for by the King, to desire the Duke of Portland to form a Ministry." Wilberforce's Diary.-ED.

VOL. II.-25

In short, whether Lord Shelburne retained his influence in the Closet, or endeavoured to preserve it; or whether mere aversion to Charles Fox and the Cavendishes, who govern the remnant of the Rockingham faction, was the cause; Lord Shelburne, the Chancellor, the Lord Advocate, and some of the old Bedford squadron, seconded the King's wishes to patch up a succedaneous Administration, though without Lord Shelburne for ostensible Minister. The first idea was to offer the Treasury to young Pitt, whose vanity was at first naturally staggered; but his discretion got the better, and he declined. It was then offered to Lord Gower, who had not resolution enough to accept. At last, Lord North, as I told you, was sent for, and it was proposed to him earnestly to resume his old rudder; but he avowed his new alliance with Fox, and proposed the Duke of Portland. This was absolutely rejected; and a resolution was declared of not appointing the Duke premier, though all the rest of his party might have places. This strange interval lasted from Sunday night to the Tuesday sevennight following. All men were in amazement, and nobody knew how this Gordian knot would be cut. I believe it was expected, perhaps hoped, that Mr. Fox and his associates would fly out into violence; which would revolt a very fluctuating House of Commons, in which the Tories, though they had followed Lord North, their old commander, against Lord Shelburne, might repent their desertion of prerogative, and leave the new allies, North and Fox, once more in a minority; but these were too cunning to precipitate their plan, and kept their temper; while the Crown received so many rebuffs, and found it impossible to form any other Ministry, that at last Lord North was again sent for, and ordered to form a new arrangement according to the system he had adopted and proposed; but was desired to make it broad enough, that there might not be another change soon.* Whether the latter part of the command will be easily executed, I don't know. The Coalition of North and Foxt has given extreme offence reciprocally to many of

*This was certainly an insincerity to lull the allies asleep, as appeared nine months afterwards; and, even so early as the following August, the King dropped hints of his meditating another change.

Mr. Eden, afterwards Lord Auckland, was supposed to have been the person who had the principal weight with Lord North upon this occasion. "He was called," says Bishop Tomline, "the father of the Coalition, and I myself heard Mr. Sheridan attribute the Coalition to him." Lady Charlotte Lindsay, the surviving daughter of Lord North, in a letter addressed to Lord Brougham in February 1839, and inserted in the first volume of his Lordship's Historical Sketches of Statesmen who flourished in the reign of George the Third, observes, in allusion to the much criticized Coalition, "The proverb says, Necessity acquaints us with strange bedfellows;" it is no less true, that dislike of a third party reconciles adversaries. My eldest brother was a Whig by nature, and an enthusiastic admirer of Mr. Fox; he, together with Mr. Adam and Mr. Eden, were, I believe, the chief promoters of the Coalition. My mother, I remember, was averse to it; not that she troubled her head with being a Tory or Whig, but she feared it would compromise her husband's political consistency." With many others, Sir Samuel Romilly appears to have been greatly disgusted at what had taken place: "I suppose," he says, in a letter

their friends, and I believe is not very popular in the country; nay, I question whether they are very sure of either House of Parliament. Of the Court they cannot be, which has shown so much aversion; and, as in March last, has affronted the Duke of Portland, like Lord Rockingham, by appointing another person to treat with him. Many expect the two allies will break again-I own I do not believe that: but as few, by the reduction of employments, and by the fulness of other places, whence the present occupiers will be removed, can be provided for, I foresee a pretty strong Opposition; and young Pitt, whose character is as yet little singed, and who has many Youths, of his own age and of parts,* attached to him, will be ready to head a new party. There are many other circumstances, too long to detail, that will favour my ideas. Your nephew will supply a verbal comment; but pray remember to send me this letter, and the rest of mine, by him.

The peace and the new arrangement are certainly fortunate. A duration of obstinacy against the latter might have endangered the

to his friend Roget, "all the gazettes have proclaimed to you the scandalous alliance between Fox and Lord North. It is not Fox alone, but all his party; so much, that it is no exaggeration to say, that, of all the public characters of this devoted country (Mr. Pitt only excepted,) there is not a man who has, or who deserves, the nation's confidence. But that even those men may not be judged unheard, the apology for their conduct which they offer, or rather upon which they insult the public, is this: They say, the great cause of enmity between them was the American war, which being removed, there remains no obstacle to their now becoming friends: that this country has long been shamefully rent with party feuds and animosities, to which it is high time to put an end, by uniting all the talents of the country in one Administration: that their alliance implies no departure from their ancient principles; for though each party consents to act with men whom they formerly opposed, yet neither gives up any of their political sentiments: that an Administration formed of men holding contrary speculative opinions in politics, is no novelty in this country that even Lord Shelburne's Administration was one of this kind; the Chancellor and the Lord Advocate of Scotland being the warm Advocates of the Crown, and of the present Constitution; and the other Ministers being the zealous friends of the people, and the promoters of a reformation of the Constitution. These sophisms are not worth refuting." Life, vol. i. p. 269.-ED.

The Youths of his own age and of parts, here alluded to by Walpole, were Mr. Wilberforce, Mr. Henry Bankes, Mr. Pepper Arden, Mr. Eliot, and Mr. Dudley Ryder. With these young friends, Mr. Pitt, as is shown by Mr. Wilberforce's Diary, passed at this time most of his leisure hours: "March 31st. Pitt resigned to-day. Dined Pitt's: then Goostree's, where supped. April 3rd. Wimbledon, where Pitt, &c. dined and slept. Evening walk; bed a little past two. 4th. Dolicious day. Lounged morning at Wimbledon with friends, foining at night and run about the garden for an hour or two." “Little was it known," says Mr. Wilberforce's biographer, "by those who saw him only in his public course, that the stiffness of Mr. Pitt's ordinary manner could thus at times unbend, and wanton in these exuberant bursts of natural vivacity. The sports of the rigid Scipio and meditative Lælius, in their ungirded hours, were equalled by the 'foinings' of the garden at Wimbledon, where Pitt's overflowing spirits carried him to every height of jest. We found, one morning, the fruits of Pitt's earlier rising in the careful sowing of the garden-beds with the fragments of a dress-hat in which Ryder had overnight come down from the Opera.' It was in this varied and familiar intercourse that their mutual affection was matured." Life, vol. i. p. 27.-Ed.