Some time before his marriage the King’s face was full of pimples. These had so entirely disappeared, that it was apprehended he had made use of external remedies to repel them. It is certain that from that time he frequently laboured with disorders on his breast, particularly during the Queen’s first pregnancy. He was now again seized with a cough and fever, for which he was repeatedly blooded four times, and was apprehended to be in much danger.[70] So critical a situation made men take notice that, to secrete him from all intercourse with his Court, Lord Bute had placed the King at Buckingham House, a damp unwholesome spot, and rendered more perilous by the neighbourhood of two infectious hospitals. The vigour of his age and his sanguine constitution seemed to require more exercise and air than he enjoyed in that sauntering and domestic life. It was even said that Dr. Duncan[71] advising his Majesty to have one of his palaces in the country fitted up, and to live there for some time, Lord Bute harshly reprimanded the physician, and asked him what he had to do to advise beyond his line?—a question which reason could easily have answered, though awe might not. After stating some intervening matters, I shall return to this subject.
The Chevalier d’Eon having accused the Comte de Guerchy of a design to have him assassinated, the grand jury found the bill against the Ambassador. This new insult was not more perplexing to the Ambassador than it was to the Ministers. The latter determined to remove the verdict by a writ of certiorari into the King’s Bench, and then to issue another of noli prosequi. The affront, in the meantime, met with no support, and was soon forgotten in the subsequent national disputes.
On the 4th of March, Nicholson Calvert, seconded by Serjeant Hewet, moved the House to take from the Attorney-General the power of informations ex-officio—a blow intended to stigmatize Norton, as well as to serve liberty. Mr. Conway having observed that those popular questions only terminated in confirming the power that was abused, had vainly laboured to prevent the motion. Grenville and the lawyers opposed it; and denying that the power had been abused, urged that there was no reason for taking it away. Charles Yorke spoke on the side of the Court, and, after a short debate, the motion was rejected by 204 to 78.[72]
Bishop Warburton,[73] who thought the persecution he had suffered from Wilkes and Churchill, his devotion to the Ministry, and his great pre-eminence in learning over his brethren on the Bench, had entitled him to one of the most considerable mitres, resented so much the promotion of Terrick to the see of London, that, during the King’s illness, in the King’s own chapel, he preached on neglected merit, and, with the same modesty that shines through his writings, drew pictures of himself and his rival under the distinctions of merit and demerit.[74]
The City of London petitioning the House of Commons for more money for the new bridge at Blackfriars, Lord Strange, Elliot, and Rigby opposed, the latter saying rudely, that he did not know what obligations the King had to the City. Grenville, with more prudence, countenanced the petition and procured a gift of 7000l.
Lord John Cavendish, impatient to fulfil his engagement, prevailed on Lord Rockingham to go to Hayes, and know if Mr. Pitt would come to town, or desired to have the motion on dismission of officers delayed any longer. Mr. Pitt’s language was now exceedingly altered, though he still highly condemned the dismission of Conway. The question, he said, touched near upon prerogative. It ought to have been brought on early in the session; was sorry to hear it had been reported that the question had been postponed on his account: himself had never advised to agitate it. Lord Rockingham even doubted, from his inexplicit conversation, whether, if he should appear in the House, he might not make the same declaration there—a new reason for alarming us that were averse to the motion. Lord Temple inquired after the result of the visit. Lord Rockingham declared himself less satisfied than ever with Mr. Pitt. Lord Temple assured him they were as well disposed as ever to the Opposition; but then dropped, that if the former designed arrangement had taken place, he did not believe it would have held six months. “Why?” said Lord Rockingham. “Because,” replied Lord Temple remarkably, “I believe the Duke of Devonshire, and others of you, never liked that the Treasury should be put into my hands.”
The Budget was opened by Grenville on the 29th of March, an occasion that generally produces applause to the Head of the Treasury, who must possess more lights on that subject than other men; and those lights strike the more forcibly, as the audience are little masters of such intricate details; and as the monied men, who alone feel the force or deficiency of the Minister’s arguments, are rarely endowed with eloquence, or even elocution. Yet Grenville, who valued himself on his knowledge of finance, and who, of all qualifications, wanted not redundancy of words, spoke but languidly and unsatisfactorily, chiefly pointing his very long speech against a pamphlet published by Hartley, on the State of the Nation. Himself, he said, would never punish any invectives against himself; yet he betrayed every symptom of soreness and malice. In very few years afterwards he used the same means with Hartley against the Administration; and, previous to a session of Parliament,[75] published, or countenanced, an invidious State of the Nation; but met with a far more severe and able return than he himself had made to Hartley.
On the 1st of April, the King withdrew to Richmond for a week, but returned unexpectedly on the 3rd and 4th to his levee and drawing-room. This sudden appearance was at that time supposed calculated to prevent any notion of his being ill; and consequently to avoid any proposal for a Bill of Regency, in case he should fail. The Favourite, in the meantime, began to give more open marks of his disgust to the Ministers. A bill for regulating the poor, drawn by one Gilbert,[76] a member, and steward to Lord Gower, had passed the Commons with slight animadversion, and had been sent to the Lords. The Earl of Egmont opposed it strenuously on the first and second reading, and with much applause; yet it was then carried. When it came into the committee, Lord Bute’s friends exerted themselves to throw it out; though, to disguise his opposition, Lord Bute absented himself, and the Earl of Northumberland voted for it; but as the Favourite’s creatures, the Earls of Denbigh and Pomfret, as well as Lord Egmont, conducted the party against the bill, the Bedford party were not the dupes of such flimsy arts. Lord Mansfield faintly supported the bill; the Dukes of York and Gloucester voted for it, yet the commitment was rejected by 58 to 44, Newcastle, Lord Temple, and the Opposition uniting against the Bedfords. Lord Pomfret then moved to put off any farther consideration of the bill for two months; but that measure seeming too violent after it had passed one House, and had been twice approved in the other, it was carried by 50 to 49, to resume it after the holidays; when the Bedfords consented to drop it.[77]
April the 3rd,—Sturt[78] and John Pitt[79] presented to the Commons a petition from several merchants complaining of encroachments by the French at Newfoundland—another grievance that reflected on the late peace. The Ministers had the assurance to oppose the reception of the petition, but managed as awkwardly as indecently; and, at last, moved to examine Commodore Palliser,[80] who commanded on the station in question. Palliser was a vigorous officer and a sensible man, and had been so much esteemed by Lord Anson, that Admiral Saunders, desiring to have the assistance of Palliser, had offered to relinquish the use of a 74-gun ship, if the Admiralty would send Palliser with him. General Conway, Colonel Barré, and Lord George Sackville made severe remarks on the conduct of the Ministers. Palliser was called for, but declaring he was not prepared, the House allowed him time till the next day.
When he appeared again, he produced a letter he had sent to the French Commodore, at St. Pierre, with remonstrances on their behaviour; and proved that he had by no means connived at their innovations. They had denied the justice of most of his complaints; but to some had returned no answer. Admiral Saunders, who spoke then for the first time, and with extreme unreadiness, justified one of our captains who had burned some French boats, and said he would have done the same. Late at night a sudden dispute arising whether Palliser should be asked his opinion on an Act of Parliament relating to the fisheries, the Ministers, who sought to evade farther examination, opposed the question being put to him. Some warm men in the Opposition supporting that motion (though the wisest did not concur with them), divided the House, to the great joy of the Ministers, who rejected the question by 161 to 44: and thence, at once, determined to stifle any farther inquiry, Rose Fuller moving to adjourn the consideration for three months; and Nugent to thank Palliser for his account of his own conduct, though there were witnesses waiting to show it had not been irreproachable. So eager were the pacific Ministers to justify France, and wink at her encroachments.