Lord Chatham, His Early Life and Connections

by Earl of Archibald Philip Primrose Rosebery

As to the first, if the Minister is to be subordinate, that is, not the Premier, he sees no great harm in it. 'For I have long been convinced,' continues the sagacious man, 'that whoever your Grace shall make use of as your first man and man of confidence in the House of Commons, you will find it necessary, if he be a man of reputation and ability accompanied with the ambition naturally incident to such a character, I say under those circumstances, your Grace will find it necessary to invest him with more power than, from the beginning, you thought fit to impart either to Mr. Legge or Sir Thomas Robinson.'

From this we may gather that the Chancellor had never believed in the plan of a leaderless House of Commons. How indeed could he, as a man of sense, much more as a man of rare capacity? Such a plan could only be deemed possible by an alien King and a mountebank Minister. As to the personal point, Hardwicke is not less acute. Pitt, he declares, has stiffened his demand since their interview. Pitt, he is convinced, intended to draw from the Duke a promise that it should be made a point with the King that he should be made Secretary of State within a given time; and so, when he failed in this, he proceeded to discuss measures in a more peremptory tone than he would otherwise have employed.

'Now,' says Hardwicke, 'this comes to a point which you and I have often discussed together. Whether you can think it right or bring yourself to declare to him that you really wish him in the Secretary's office, and will in earnest recommend him to the King on that foot.'

This inestimable sentence throws a flood of light on Newcastle's professions to Pitt, and on the reality of the efforts that Newcastle had employed to soften the King. It is clear, we think, from this secret utterance that Newcastle had been sincere in neither case.

Hardwicke urges that the Duke should close with Pitt. He thinks that if Newcastle were loyally to give this assurance Pitt 'would close and take his active part immediately.' Without this he is sure that Pitt believes 'that the intention is to have the use of his talents without gratifying his ambition.' In writing this Hardwicke of course knew, as Newcastle knew, that Pitt's apprehension was well founded. 'My poor opinion,' continues the Chancellor, 'is that without it all further meetings and pourparlers with this gentleman will be vain. Your heart can only dictate to you whether you should do it or not.'[285] Justly distrusting the Duke's heart, the Chancellor proceeds to appeal to his instincts. He discards, of course, the idea of Newcastle's resignation. A friend, consulted on such a point, rarely deems it decent to do otherwise; certainly no confidant of Newcastle's could have done so and retained his intimacy.

As to relying on Pitt and Legge, he agrees that nothing but the pressure of necessity could make the King adopt this course. Of course he does not say that the Duke could at any moment bring about this pressure, though that no doubt was the case. Newcastle, by his Parliamentary influence, could always produce a deadlock, as was soon to be proved. But Newcastle could, thinks Hardwicke, have Pitt without Legge. If Pitt had the seals he would not insist on Legge.

The third course is that urged by Granville: to take Fox on Granville's conditions, which we may safely presume to have been those afterwards adopted. Hardwicke insinuates objections. Fox has the strong protection of Cumberland and the personal inclination of the King, but his election will be profoundly distasteful to Leicester House. Pitt, on the other hand, has 'no support at Court, and the personal disinclination of the King. He must therefore probably depend, at least for a good while, upon those who bring him thither.' Then comes the sentence about Fox and Leicester House which conveys a hint that Pitt, on the contrary, is well there. It is impossible to be more adroit. Hardwicke knew that Newcastle was fully aware that he hated Fox, and so put his objections in this indirect and skilful way. He failed, probably because Newcastle felt that to accept Fox would at any rate not necessitate a critical struggle with the King, and that Fox himself was more malleable.

Of all strange confidants it was Bubb whom Pitt, on leaving Newcastle, proceeded to take into his inmost counsels. There are always parasites of this kind in politics, universally mistrusted, and yet constantly taken into confidence on grounds of convenience. Always sympathetic, always warm, always ready to betray at the first symptom of personal advantage, they are nevertheless useful parts of the political machine, and not so contemptible as might appear. They profess little, they deceive nobody except for a fleeting moment, and they are employed, with full knowledge of their character, to sound others and report the result, to suggest from their own base experience, to bring statesmen into relation with necessary people, and do the work with which statesmen will not soil their hands. But they are perilous and slippery agents, they attract in the warmth of the moment excessive confidence, and while these indiscretions are still ringing in their ears they are already in the tents of the enemy. Still, such as they are, they will always exist, and always be utilised, for they are part of the fatality of politics.

So to Bubb Pitt betook himself on the day after that on which he had seen Newcastle, and gave a spirited account of the interview. He then spoke fully of his relations with Fox, in which really lay the key to the situation. He wished well to Mr. Fox, he did not complain of him, but he could not act with him; they could not co-operate because they were not on the same ground. Fox was not independent (sui juris), but he was. He had been ready during the last session to go all lengths against the Duke of Newcastle; but when it came to the pinch Fox always failed him (under the constraint, it may be presumed, of the Duke of Cumberland). Fox had risen on his shoulders;[286] he did not blame him for it. Fox had taken the smooth part, and left him the brunt; he did not complain. Fox, too, lived with his greatest enemies, Carteret, Stone, and Murray. And Newcastle had told him that Fox had recently offered himself to his Grace. Bubb declared that this was false, to his knowledge. Pitt replied that no one knew better than himself how great a liar Newcastle could be, and that if Fox denied this he should readily take his word against the Duke's. But all that he had recapitulated showed how impossible it was for two men to act together who stood on so different a footing as Fox and himself.

Bubb now scented business of the kind to which he himself was addicted, and broke in with, 'As we who are to unite in this attack are to part no more,'[287] it would be proper to think what was to be held out to the confederates if they succeeded.