1751.
An nescis, Mî Filî, quantillâ Prudentiâ regitur Orbis?
Chancellor Oxenstiern to his Son.
[CHAPTER I.]
State of the Ministry at the commencement of the year 1751—The Duke of Newcastle disagrees with the Duke of Bedford—Lord Sandwich’s subserviency to the Duke of Cumberland—Mr. Pelham adopts his brother’s jealousies—Removal of Lord Harrington on the King’s return to England—Some account of his career—Conclusion of the Spanish war—Meeting of Parliament—Mr. Pitt’s recantations—Circulation of a political paper, called “Constitutional Queries,” brought before the notice of Parliament—Motion for providing eight thousand seamen—The Westminster Election and Petition—Speeches of Lord Trentham and Mr. Fox—Debate on the Naval establishment—Quarrel of Pitt and Hampden—Breach of privilege—Anecdote of Onslow.
It had been much expected that on the King’s return from Hanover several changes would be made in the Ministry. The Duke of Newcastle had, for some time before his attending the King thither, disagreed with the other Secretary of State, the Duke of Bedford, not only because he had brought the latter into the Ministry (his incessant motive of jealousy,) nor from the impetuosity of the Duke of Bedford’s temper, but from the intimate connexions that Lord Sandwich had contracted with the Duke.[17] Lord Sandwich had been hoisted to the head of the Admiralty by the weight of the Duke of Bedford, into whose affection he had worked himself by intrigues, cricket-matches, and acting plays, and whom he had almost persuaded to resign the Seals in his favour. There had been a time when he had almost obtained the Duke of Newcastle’s concurrence; and if he could have balanced himself between the Duke and the Duke of Newcastle, one may, without wronging the delicacy of his political character, suspect that he would have dropped the Duke of Bedford’s confidence. But a blind devotion to the Duke’s inclinations, which he studied in all the negotiations[18] of the war and the peace, protracting the one to flatter his command, and hurrying on the other when no part of Flanders was left for the Duke’s army, and himself was impatient to come over to advance his interest in the Cabinet, this had embroiled him with the Duke of Newcastle, and consequently cemented his old attachments.
Mr. Pelham had, according to his manner, tried to soothe where his brother provoked, been convinced by trifles that his brother’s jealousy was solidly grounded, adopted his resentments, and promoted them. While the Court was at Hanover, Lord Sandwich had drawn a great concourse of the young men of fashion to Huntingdon races, and then carried them to Woburn to cricket-matches made there for the entertainment of the Duke. These dangerous practices opened Mr. Pelham’s eyes; and a love affair between one of his [relations] and a younger brother[19] of the Duchess of Bedford fixed his aversion to that family. At this period the Duke of Richmond[20] died, who besides the Duchess and his own dignity, loved the Duke of Newcastle—the only man who ever did. The Pelhams immediately offered the Mastership of the Horse to the Duke of Bedford, which he would have accepted, had they left him the nomination of Lord Sandwich for his successor.