Extinxti me teque, soror; populumque Patresque
Sidonios, urbemque tuam!
The Ministers, who no doubt had learnt from Lord Temple the King’s distress, went to his Majesty on the 22nd, and being acquainted that it was his purpose to retain them in his service, insolently told him that they must ask three things. First, Would his Majesty promise, on his royal word, not to consult Lord Bute any more, nor suffer him to interfere in business? Secondly, Would he dismiss Mr. Mackenzie[138] from the direction of Scottish affairs? Thirdly, Would he immediately declare Lord Granby Captain-General? The King said the last would be the greatest affront imaginable to his uncle, after he had been thought of for Captain-General. Grenville replied insolently, he did not understand why his Royal Highness was so often at Court. “But,” continued the King, “are these questions, or terms?” They said, “Questions.” “But do you mean,” said the King, “to adhere to them as sine quâ non?”—“We do,” replied they. The King said, he would give them an answer at night.
In the evening, the King, instead of seeing them, sent for the Chancellor, and ordered him to carry his answer to the Ministers. It was: that there was no longer any question about Lord Bute: but his Majesty would give his word not to see him. He would dismiss Mr. Mackenzie,[139] but would by no means yield to make Lord Granby Captain-General. But though the stand-out of prudence was made on the last article, the indignity offered personally to the King on the second was the most crying. Mr. Mackenzie had possessed a place of 2000l. a year for life. To accommodate some arrangement in Scotland, he had given it up, and the King had given him another of 3000l. a year; but it not being a patent place for life, the King had promised him, upon his honour, that it should never be taken away during his reign. This severe sacrifice the insolent faction now extorted; the Court, in its present distress, not daring to venture a rupture, of which any part of Lord Bute’s family should be the cause.
The Ministers did not hesitate long; though Rigby tried to enforce[140] their adherence to all the three demands. They waited on the King the next day, declaring their acceptance of the two conditions, but annexing a third, the dismission of Lord Holland from the Pay-office, which was granted without a murmur; though, when Lord Holland had undertaken to carry through the Peace, the King said to his wife, he should never forget the obligation.[141] The King ordered Lord Sandwich to write the letter of his dismission, but Sandwich had the decency to excuse himself, having lived even till now on friendly terms with Lord Holland, and then actually inhabiting the Pay-office, which Lord Holland had lent him the two last years. Charles Townshend succeeded Lord Holland, though he had been designed Chancellor of the Exchequer by the Opposition, and acted with them when they came into power; and to complete the disgrace of Lord Bute’s family, and as if wantonly to mark their disregard to all propriety, the Ministers removed Lord Northumberland from the government of Ireland, and named for his successor the Viscount Weymouth,[142] an inconsiderable, debauched young man, attached to the Bedfords, but so ruined by gaming, that the moment before his exaltation, he was setting out for France, to avoid his creditors. The Duke of Cumberland retired to Windsor, declaring he had done with Opposition. His whole conduct, indeed, in this transaction, had been noble, and becoming the relation in which he stood to the Crown. He had forgiven all the slights he had experienced from the Court, had handsomely taken up the cause of his nephew, and had even submitted to act as messenger to Mr. Pitt. The Dukes of Richmond and Manchester[143] had offered his Royal Highness their assistance against the Ministers. The former, enraged at the disgrace of his brother-in-law Lord Holland, wished to reconcile him to the Duke, but the Prince would lend no ear to it. Nor, unsuccessful and baffled as our party had been, did they grow at all more reasonable. Lord Frederick Cavendish, probably from knowing the inclinations of the Duke of Cumberland, was desirous his brothers should soften towards Lord Bute. I, too, saw the necessity of that step; as, added to our own numbers, we should have the favour of the Crown, and the support of Lord Bute, Lord Northumberland, Lord Holland, and their friends. “It is true, we should,” said Lord Frederick, when I mentioned this; “but then, we should have Mr. Pitt against us.” “I doubt it: Mr. Pitt was not disposed to offend the King: he never was heartily a friend to us;” and his subsequent conduct proved how much he preferred any connection to union with George Grenville.
The privy seal of Scotland thus wrenched from Mackenzie, was offered to Lord Lorn:[144] he declining it, it was bestowed on his brother Lord Frederick Campbell, who, with unparalleled ingratitude and indecency, accepted it. He was nearly related to Mackenzie, had lived in the strictest intimacy with him, and had received from Lord Bute a place in Scotland of above 400l. a year for life, by a preference that had made two considerable chiefs in that country the mortal enemies of the Favourite. Thurlow,[145] an able lawyer, was named secretary to Lord Weymouth; and Lord Warkworth, the Earl of Northumberland’s son, was set aside from being Master of the Horse to the Queen, to which he was destined by the Court, in the room of Lord Weymouth.
To complete their vengeance even on inferior offenders, the Ministers caused the House of Lords to inflict severe penalties on several printers, and to reprimand Justice Fielding, the blind, but only useful magistrate, for having been negligent during the late riots. Yet as so much persecution and arrogance could not but excite much ill-will and mutual hostilities, it now came out that, before the loss of their bill, the weavers, suspecting that Lord Hilsborough was against them, had waited on him to implore his protection. To convince them he was not their enemy, he showed them a letter from Lord Halifax, in which the latter had begged him not to oppose the bill, Lord Halifax having an estate in Spitalfields, which would be greatly benefited by the success of the bill. To this the weavers had trusted; and the disappointment had blown up their fury. How Lord Halifax came not to support his own interest, or how it was compensated to him, did not appear. But with this triumph over all their foes, the Ministers put an end to the session by proroguing the Parliament, May 25th. Ten days more crowded with events scarce ever passed; for the Regency-bill was finished on the 14th, and between that and the 25th had happened the riot, the King’s declaration of his intention to dismiss the Ministers, the several journeys to Hayes, the reconciliation of Lord Temple and Grenville, the various attempts to form another Administration, the recall of the Ministers, and the several instances of their revenge and insolence. The King was left a prisoner to the Cabal, Lord Bute punished by the very instruments of all his bad acts, and Lord Holland disgraced by his once dear allies, the Bedfords and Rigby. The only joy the nation could feel was in seeing such poetic justice, for if they pitied not the sufferers, they could but abhor the executioners. If Lord Bute had advised the Peace, the Duke of Bedford had negotiated it. If General Warrants were employed for his service, Lord Halifax had issued them. If he had had any hand in the dismission of officers, Grenville had executed it. And if he had authorized the severe proscription of opponents, Lord Holland had marked the victims. Ampler atonement was still due; and it was not long delayed.
Defeated as the King’s attempts had been to deliver himself from the thrall of his Ministers, he could not sit patient under so many indignities. The insult offered to his mother, and the breach of his own royal promise imposed on him, were injuries not to be pardoned. His resentment broke out on every occasion, and the Parliament was no sooner prorogued than he took all opportunities of frowning on his tyrants and thwarting their desires. The Ministers proposed to make Lord Waldegrave or Lord Suffolk Master of the Horse to the Queen. Her Majesty said no Minister should interfere in her family, and named the Duke of Ancaster.[146] The first regiment that became vacant, the King bestowed on Lord Albemarle’s brother, General Keppel. The young Duke of Devonshire, by the King’s desire, was carried to Court by his uncles; and the Duke of Cumberland was still ready, as the King knew, to protect him against the Cabal. His Royal Highness said to Lord John Cavendish, “I can oppose the Crown when Ministers do wrong, but will now support it when it is insulted.”
CHAPTER IX.
Differences between the King and his Ministers.—Further Negotiations with Mr. Pitt.—Attempts to form a Whig Administration.—Summary of the Negotiations.—New Ministry formed.—Mr. Dowdeswell.—Marquis of Rockingham.—Mysterious Behaviour of Mr. Pitt.—Arrival of the Prince and Princess of Brunswick.