Another Bill, brought in by George Grenville on a good-natured principle, called out the passions and feelings of men at this extraordinary crisis. It was the custom in the Navy not to pay punctually the wages of the seamen, but to keep back some part, lest the natural profuseness of that wandering people should disperse them as often as they were masters of a little sum. Grenville proposed more frequent terms of payment. The superiors of that class in the House of Commons, who, according to the nature of mankind, liked that others should endure what they had endured, and who are apt to attribute their own proficience to an education under which they had begun with suffering, had opposed this compassionate reformation; and indeed the profession were but too well founded in the advantages resulting from the established hardships! Fox divided against the Bill, though without speaking; and it was carried in that House by above 60 to 42.
When it came to the Lords, it was warmly opposed by Lord Winchelsea. The Duke of Bedford, too honest to be always biassed by faction, supported it against his friends, as he had the Militia Bill. Lord Denbigh, a man whose parts were better than his character, spoke out in very plain terms: he said, he should be for measures, not men: good measures he would support, whoever proposed them, be his name William, Holles, or even Harry—and observing all the Bishops withdrawn but two, he supposed, he said, they were gone to dinner—he hoped they would not return to vote! The Dukes of Newcastle and Devonshire, Lord Hardwicke, and many others had retired, which gave but too fair a handle for that satire on the Bench. The Bill was rejected by 23 to 18.
The inter-ministerium (if I may be permitted to use a new word on a new occasion; and truly as there never was such a being as the Duke of Newcastle, one may be allowed to describe him, his actions, and their consequences in a novel language,) had now lasted seven weeks. On the last rupture of the treaty with Pitt, his Grace thought he had determined to take the sole burthen of the State upon himself. He even sent his Majesty word that he would be at Kensington on the 24th, and would declare his final resolution—but he put the King off; he had fixed on nothing—and while he prevented any other man from having power, his own idea of being Minister was in a manner answered. Lord Lincoln, Lady Catherine Pelham, and Lord Ashburnham, the private chorus, that had not the less part in the drama for being cyphers, earnestly dissuaded him from coming in again without an union with Leicester House. To advise him to be governed by his fears, was governing him. He reverted to another interview with Pitt at Lord Royston’s, where Lord Hardwicke was present.
Pitt, the more he foresaw incompliance on the Duke’s part, knew how much more grace he should wear (if forced to come to public explanation), by stipulating some advantages to his country, asked if they meant to send abroad any part of the new granted million, as Lord Granville and Fox had declared for doing. Newcastle said, he was not bound by their declarations—“and you, Mr. Pitt, you are not bound against sending any of it, are you?” Pitt replied he was; “and you, my lord, though you are not bound to send any more money abroad, are not you inclined to it?” Newcastle would not explain. Lord Hardwicke proposed to wave this point ad referendum; knowing how easily they should settle the nation’s concerns, if they could agree upon their own. They then passed to the article of Chancellor of the Exchequer. Pitt urged that he had had it before for one of his friends; Newcastle, that it would mark his having no power at the Treasury. Neither would yield. Even on the first Lord of the Admiralty, Newcastle haggled, pretending the King would not be brought to dismiss Lord Winchelsea.
They parted in discontent; though the Duke, in all his messages by the Primate, Lord George Sackville, and others, had promised how reasonable he would be. This was exactly the manner in which he had formerly treated Fox, departing from his own concessions before he had time to ratify them. Lord Hardwicke behaved more uniformly; declared he would not take the Seals again; desired nobody should be displaced for him; if the Presidentship of the Council, or the Privy Seal should be vacant, he would gladly accept either: for Lord Anson he peremptorily insisted on the Treasurership of the Navy. Pitt now found his error; by facilitating Newcastle’s escape from the inquiries, he remained at the mercy of that Duke, not the Duke at his.
May 27th.—The Duke of Newcastle did go to Kensington, and after a long audience, promised to be sole Minister, permitting Fox to be Paymaster, but with no power. Sir Thomas Robinson was to be Secretary of State, Sir George Lee, Chancellor of the Exchequer. Hume Campbell modestly asked the Treasurership of the Navy[3] under this Ministry, in addition to his office of Lord Register—and probably would have had it, or something equivalent: Newcastle’s greatest want now was of men who would take anything to support him. Lord Egmont was much solicited to be of the band; but he, the great opposer of the Duke of Cumberland and Fox, would have stipulated for more power to the latter, and did insist on a Peerage for himself, which would have destroyed his whole utility: it was not in the placid House of Lords that Newcastle expected to be worried. The Duke of Dorset was to be displaced (for Lord George Sackville had been designed for Pitt’s Secretary at War), Lord Gower was to be Master of the Horse, and Lord Hardwicke Privy Seal. The Duke of Newcastle was to retire to Claremont for two or three days, and take a final inspiration from his oracles.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] A card was published representing Pitt and Legge, like Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, in a triumphal car, with this motto,
—— Et sibi Consul
Ne placeat, serves curru portatur eodem.—Juv.