[CHAPTER IV.]
Indulgence to Murray revoked—Changes in the Establishment of the young Prince of Wales—Bubb Doddington—Chief Justice Willes—Dr. Lee—Promotions and resignations—The Naturalization Bill thrown out—Character of William Pitt, first Earl of Chatham, and of Mr. Henry Fox—New Appointments in the Household of Prince George—Breach of privilege—Lord Middlesex appointed Master of the Horse to the Princess—The Duke of Cumberland and the Regency—The Pelhams espouse the interests of the Princess—Resentment of the Duke of Cumberland—General Anstruther’s Cause.
April 2d.—Mr. Cooke moved in a very thin House, and late in the day, to have Mr. Murray taken into the custody of the Serjeant at Arms, on account of his bad health. It was agreed to, and ordered that the Speaker should give permission to whomever he thought proper to visit him.
Lord Lincoln was made Auditor of the Exchequer, in the room of the Earl of Orford,[86] who was just dead. Mr. Pelham had affected to be willing to retire with this post, which is at least eight thousand pounds a year, and a sinecure for life. The King desired him not to take it himself, and that dutiful Minister obeyed; that is, he held it in the name of Lord Lincoln,[87] who was his nephew and son-in-law, adopted heir to the Duke of Newcastle, and the mimic of his fulsome fondnesses and follies, but with more honour and more pride. As the Duke, his uncle, was a political weathercock, he was a political weatherglass; his quicksilver being always up at insolence, or down at despair. Lyttelton asked to be Cofferer, if Lord Lincoln resigned it. Mr. Pelham told him that, from his and Pitt’s behaviour this winter, the King would do nothing for him.
3rd.—Palmer the deputy Serjeant-at-arms, reported to the House that Dr. Lamont, who the day before had represented Murray as ill of the jail distemper, told him that the prisoner had been in a sweat, and must not be removed; besides, that there was danger of the motion causing a return of his vomiting; and that on acquainting Mr. Murray with the indulgence of the House, he replied, “He would not come out of Newgate, and that it was mean and paltry in that puppy, his brother, or any of his friends to petition for his enlargement.” The House sent for Dr. Lamont, examined him again, and then voted a total revocation of the preceding indulgence.
4th.—The King went again to see the Princess, and settled with her the new Governor and Preceptors for the children. Lord North[88] had lately been entrusted with the care of Prince George, with the promise of an Earldom; an amiable worthy man, of no great genius, unless compared with his successor. The Pelhams, who had now laid a plan of perpetuating that power, which by so many accidents had dropped into their hands, determined to beset the young Prince entirely with their own creatures. Lord North was removed to make way for Lord Harcourt,[89] who wanted a Governor himself, as much as the Duke of Newcastle was likely to do by parting with Stone, who was to be the real engine of their policy, while Lord Harcourt, who was civil and sheepish, did not threaten them with traversing their scheme, or teaching the young Prince other arts than what he knew himself—hunting and drinking. Stone,[90] lately grown a personal favourite with the King during the journeys to Hanover, was a dark, proud man, very able and very mercenary. The other Preceptor was Hayter, Bishop of Norwich, a sensible, well-bred man, natural son of Blackbourn, the jolly old Archbishop of York, who had all the manners of a man of quality, though he had been a Buccaneer and was a Clergyman; but he retained nothing of his first profession except his seraglio. Lord Hartington had been offered the government of the Prince, but declined it.
The late Prince’s debts, which were supposed very great, were extremely denied, and concealed as carefully as they would have been vaunted by those who had laid that foundation of their future advancement, if he had lived to be King. The Hanoverians, who were said to have lent him considerable sums, took care not to be the most clamorous for repayment. All who had flattered themselves with rising in his reign, by being so insignificant at present as to have no other support, were extremely disappointed at losing their only prospect. Some Peerages were still-born, more First-ministerships, and sundry regiments and inferior posts. Drax, his Secretary, who could not write his own name; Lord Baltimore, who, with a great deal of mistaken knowledge, could not spell; and Sir William Irby, the Princess’s Polonius, were to be Barons. Doddington,[91] it is said, had actually kissed his hand for the reversion of a Dukedom. This man, with great knowledge of business, much wit, and great parts, had, by mere absurdity of judgment, and a disposition to finesse, thrown himself out of all estimation, and out of all the great views which his large fortune and abilities could not have failed to promote, if he had but preserved the least shadow of steadiness. He had two or three times alternately gone all lengths of flattery with Sir Robert Walpole and the Prince of Wales. The latter and he had met again at last in a necessary connexion, for no party would have anything to do with either.[92]
Lord Chief Justice Willes was designed for Chancellor. He had been raised by Sir Robert Walpole, though always brow-beaten by haughty Yorke, and hated by the Pelhams, for that very attachment to their own patron. As Willes’s nature was more open, he returned their aversion with little reserve. He was not wont to disguise any of his passions. That for gaming was notorious; for women, unbounded. There was a remarkable story current of a grave person’s coming to reprove the scandal he gave, and to tell him that the world talked of one of his maid servants being with child. Willes said, “What is that to me?” The monitor answered, “Oh! but they say that it is by your Lordship.” “And what is that to you?” He had great quickness of wit, and a merit that would atone for many foibles, his severity to, and discouragement of that pest of society, Attorneys: hence his Court was deserted by them; and all the business they could transport, carried into the Chancery, where Yorke’s filial piety would not refuse an asylum to his father’s profession.
The Council forgetting that it was the Duke’s birth-day, appointed the 15th for the Prince’s funeral, but changed it to the 13th, when it was performed with the usual state.