Lord Chatham, His Early Life and Connections

by Earl of Archibald Philip Primrose Rosebery

'My Lord, I return Your Grace many thanks for the letter which, not being at home, I did not receive till late last night, and I am much obliged to you for the contents of it.

'The step I am going to take is not only necessary but innocent. It shall be accompany'd with no complaint. It shall be follow'd by no resentment. I have no resentment. But it is not the less true that my situation is impracticable.'

To the King he sent a formal paper of grievance and resignation, which has already been printed and need not be repeated here. He took great pains over it, as the drafts testify. The substance of it was that he had been loyal to Newcastle, but that he had not received support in return, and so could not carry on the business of Government in the House of Commons as it should be carried on. But he would gladly serve the King outside the Cabinet. This meant that he would gladly exchange offices with Pitt. At the same time he told Cumberland and wrote to Devonshire that if Newcastle had been such a fool as to offer the seals to Pitt without knowing whether he would take them, he (Fox), to prevent the general confusion that would ensue, would continue for another session. No notice was taken of this offer.[339] It does not seem certain that it ever reached either Newcastle or the King.

Granville found the King prepared for the resignation, and very angry with Fox for deserting him. 'Would you advise me to take Pitt?' he asked. 'Well, Sir!' replied Granville, 'you must take somebody.' 'Ah! but,' said the monarch, pensively, 'I am sure Pitt will not do my business.' The business to which the Sovereign referred was, of course, electoral. He considered that he had in various ways shown Fox great favour, and that Fox had acted ill in throwing up his office when the meeting of Parliament was near at hand.

Newcastle received Fox's resignation at the Treasury. Though he was planning to discard Fox for Pitt, he was thunderstruck at finding that Fox had anticipated him. He hurried to Court, and found the King in good humour except with the resigning Secretary. His Majesty gave Newcastle the paper which he had received from Granville, having underlined the passage which had mainly offended him: 'for want of support, and think it impracticable for me to carry on His Majesty's affairs as they ought to be carried on;' and then recited, with the aid of Newcastle as prompter, all the favours shown to Fox. But the more urgent and practical question was not the ingratitude of Fox, but what was to be done now that he had gone. The King, with that shrewd and redeeming touch of humour which we constantly discern in him, said that a sensible courtier, Lord Hyde, had told him that there were but three things to do. The King recited them thus: 'to call in Pitt, to make up with my own family, and, my lord, I have forgot the third.' The third probably related to Newcastle himself, and may therefore have been difficult of repetition to the Duke. But without hesitation the King empowered Newcastle to approach Pitt, and to tell him that if he would take office he should have a good reception. Pitt was also to be offered the seals, but not at first, on the fatuous principle on which all Newcastle's negotiations were conducted; to hope against hope that the object he coveted could be got for much less than its value.

But then the King asked 'the great question ... which,' says Newcastle, 'I own I could not answer: what shall we do if Pitt will not come? Fox will then be worse.' Then the King, with still increasing acuteness, asked, 'Suppose Pitt will not serve with you?' 'Then, Sir, I must go.' And so it was to end. But Newcastle would not without a struggle renounce the deleterious habit of office. He summoned Hardwicke to town for the purpose of approaching Pitt. He hurried to Lady Yarmouth and took counsel with her. All agreed that the only resource was Pitt, and that Hardwicke alone could sound him. Pitt was at Hayes, but leaving immediately for Bath. Time was short, the crisis acute, so Newcastle wrote, 'don't boggle at it.'[340]

There was no boggling or hesitation on the part of the Chancellor: he hurried to London and saw Pitt on Tuesday, October 19. The interview lasted three hours and a half. When it was over, Hardwicke despatched a despairing note to Newcastle: 'I am just come from my conference, which lasted full 3½ hours. His answer is an absolute final negative without any reserve for further deliberation. In short there never was a more unsuccessful negotiator.'[341] In a longer letter to his son Lord Royston, Hardwicke added but little more. On the main point Pitt was inexorable; he would have nothing to do with Newcastle. Hardwicke could not move him an inch. He was obdurate on 'men and measures.'[342] But 'men and measures' only meant Newcastle. Pitt had been repeatedly tricked by him; he had seen Fox repeatedly tricked by him when the meanest self-interest dictated honesty; he would not fall into the trap into which Fox had fallen; to join Newcastle now would be to be a willing dupe, and he was determined to govern if he was to govern, without this perpetual ambush at his side. Nor would he have any dealings with Fox. He thought, truly or untruly, that Fox had betrayed him, and he intended to try and do without treachery. He wished to enter on power clear of all suspicious connections, and indeed with little but the influence of his wife's family. So he resolved to see nothing even of Bute before meeting Hardwicke, and he summoned the Grenvilles to receive his report immediately after seeing Hardwicke.[343]

Pitt, however, having no access to the King and being anxious to communicate with him directly, made overtures elsewhere. On October 21, the palace was disturbed by an unwonted agitation. Pages and lackeys were seen in sudden perturbation calling to each other that Mr. Pitt had arrived to see my Lady Yarmouth. Lady Yarmouth's position was singular enough. She had once been the declared mistress of George the Second; 'My lady Yarmouth the comforter,' wrote a ribald wit.[344] She still lived under his roof, when it was her business to keep him amused, if possible, during the long dull evenings. But from being a favourite, she had developed into an institution. Her apartment, immediately below the King's, was little less than an office. There, it was said, peerages or bishoprics might sometimes be bought, and some patronage was perhaps facilitated or dispensed. On the other hand, Lord Walpole declared at an earlier period that she asked for nothing, and that one of her principal charms with the King was that she did not importune him for favours. At any rate, persons wanting anything did well to write to her. Thither, too, a circumstance of much significance, Ministers repaired before or after their audience with the King, to anticipate the royal disposition or to report the royal utterances. 'I went below stairs,' was the phrase. They took close counsel with the lady, she told them her impressions of the King's real views, and usually added some shrewd observations of her own. Her action seems to have been wholly beneficial; she appeased jealousies, conciliated animosities, administered common sense, spoke ill of nobody, and, so far as we can judge, was eminently good natured in the best sense of that tortured epithet. Perhaps her most useful function was that of acting as a conciliatory channel for those who had something to say to the King which they could not say themselves. Both Fox and Newcastle had at once hurried to her, as we have seen, when the crisis took place. And so Pitt now found it necessary to pay his first visit to her.

He had heard perhaps that the King had said, 'I am sure Pitt will not do my business,' and had come to give soothing insinuations. But he also entertained a well-founded doubt as to whether he had fair play with the King, and whether he could trust Newcastle and Hardwicke to represent him fairly to the Sovereign.[345] So he came to Lady Yarmouth as his only means of direct communication with the Closet, and stated his real terms, handing her a written list of the men he proposed for office, a list which still exists.[346] He would not serve with Newcastle, but the King might find in getting rid of Newcastle that Hanover had other unsuspected friends.[347] But he also 'sent,' says Fox, 'the terms of a madman to the King.' They do not seem very mad to us: Ireland for Temple, the Exchequer for Legge, the Paymastership for George Grenville, the Irish Secretaryship for James Grenville, the Treasury for Devonshire. Townshend was to be Treasurer of the Chambers, Dr. Hay a Lord of the Admiralty, and places were to be found for George Townshend, Erskine, Lord Pomfret, and Sir Richard Lyttelton. For his colleague in the Secretaryship of State he proposed, most marvellous of all, Sir Thomas Robinson! The overture, however, irritated the King, partly from the demands, partly because it showed that people thought that he was influenced by Lady Yarmouth. 'Mr Pitt,' he said,'shall not go to that channel any more. She does not meddle and shall not meddle.'[348] Nevertheless the hint dropped by Pitt was probably useful and fruitful. Pitt himself said afterwards that this interview put an end to the indecision of the King, who had remained sullen and passive.[349]