In all these debates, nothing was more marked than the acrimony between Grenville and Conway. The latter appeared to be a much abler man of business than had been expected. Mr. Dowdeswell, on the contrary, sunk much in the estimation of mankind, and seemed but a duller edition of Mr. Grenville, though without his malignity. Never did the intemperate rage of talking, which possessed the latter, display itself more copiously than on the debates relative to the Stamp Act. It occasioned his being ridiculed with much humour.
The man who did not make long speeches, but who absented himself on pretence of illness on most of the debates, was Charles Townshend. He was afraid, by speaking, of losing a place which nothing had given, nothing could preserve, but his speaking.
But though the heat of the day lay on Conway, the power was solely engrossed by Lord Rockingham. He admitted the Duke of Grafton and Mr. Conway to no partnership. He was even so indiscreet as to bestow on a relation of his own the vacant place of Commissioner of the Revenue in Ireland, which had been promised by Lord Hertford, the Lord-Lieutenant, to an Irishman of note.[250] This occasioned ill-blood between the Lord-Lieutenant, Conway’s brother, and the head of the Treasury. Lord Hertford, whose great property lay in that country, and who had always assiduously courted the Irish, was at first very successful there. But his economic temper, malevolently exaggerated, and too great propensity to heap emoluments on his children, though in few instances, and an appearance of similitude in the disposition of his son, Lord Beauchamp, soured the conclusion of that Session of Parliament, and occasioned to the Viceroy several mortifications.
CHAPTER XV.
Difficulties of the Ministry.—Further Negotiation with Mr. Pitt.—Meeting of Ministers.—The Seals given to the Duke of Richmond.—Grant to the Royal Dukes.—Portion of the Princess Caroline.—Treachery of Dyson.—Conduct of the Chancellor.—Virtual Fall of the Rockingham Administration.
The traverses which the English Ministers experienced, increased every day. The King was not only in opposition to himself, and had connived at Lord Bute’s seducing such of his servants as were connected with that Favourite to vote against the measures of Government, and, in truth, those servants were some of the ablest men in the House of Commons, as Elliot, Dyson, Martin, and Jenkinson, besides Sir Fletcher Norton, who, though displaced, was at the beck of the Favourite; but his Majesty, at Lord Bute’s recommendation, actually bestowed a vacant regiment on Colonel Walsh, Lieutenant-Colonel to Lord Townshend, without saying a word of it to his Ministers. It was not a command high enough to be offered to General Conway. He, with singular forbearance, had declined asking for his regiment again when he was appointed Secretary of State, lest he should be taxed with rapaciousness; and yet was determined to return to and adhere to the military line.
There was another man less delicate. Lord Albemarle had been directed by the King to act as executor to his master, the late Duke of Cumberland. Ambitious, greedy, and a dexterous courtier, Lord Albemarle flattered himself that the door was now opened to him, and sought and made pretences from his trust to obtain frequent audiences of the King. He procured a grant, I think, for three lives, of the lodge at Bagshot, dependent on Windsor, which he had held during the pleasure of the Duke, and under colour of resigning a pension he enjoyed on Ireland, he obtained to have it made over to a brother and sister of his in indigent circumstances, with whom he would otherwise have been burthened. But here ended that gleam of favour. Lord Bute grew jealous, and the door of the closet was shut for ever against Lord Albemarle.
Yet this and every other evidence could not open the eyes of Lord Rockingham. He weakly flattered himself that he was grown a personal favourite with the King, and had undermined Lord Bute. Nor were the complaints he was forced to make received in a manner to nourish his delusion. When it was first proposed to call in Mr. Pitt, the King was said to reply, “Go on as long as you can; but if there is to be a change, I will choose my next Ministers myself.” When the royal assent for treating with Pitt had been extorted, the latter had replied (as I have mentioned)[251] in a manner not to inflame Lord Rockingham with eagerness to renew the proposal. Yet the Duke of Grafton was earnest for that junction; and disliking business, and probably not charmed to see all power arrogated by an associate, who was reduced to sit silent in the House of Lords, whilst he himself was almost the sole champion there of their joint-administration, daily threatened to resign unless Mr. Pitt was called to the head of affairs. Conway, under like circumstances, looked the same way, but with more temper. Some of the friends of the Administration, sensible of their tottering position, and wishing to burst the connection between Grenville and the Bedfords, the latter of whom were the only real supporters of the former, endeavoured to detach the Bedfords and unite them with the Ministers; but Rigby, devoted to Grenville, though not blind to his defects, which he often made the subject of his ridicule, detested Conway, and despised Lord Rockingham and the Cavendishes, and was too clear-sighted and too interested to attach himself to the desperate fortune of a set of men disliked by the King. Chance at the same time opened to the Duke of Bedford and his friends a prospect of an ally, able himself, and suited to their desire of reconciliation with Lord Bute. Lord Holland’s eldest son[252] fell in love with Lady Mary Fitzpatrick,[253] niece of the Duchess of Bedford, and educated by her. The marriage was proposed, and joyfully accepted by the Duke of Bedford, who lost not a moment to send overtures of peace to Lord Holland. But though the latter had consented to gratify the inclinations of his son, as he was a most indulgent father, he acted with the spirit of resentment that became him; and besides rejecting the Duke of Bedford’s offered visit, wrote him a most severe answer, and plainly told him how egregiously he was duped and governed by a set of worthless people. This letter Lord Holland showed to all that resorted to him, nor would at any time listen to various advances that were made to him by that family.
At this juncture I returned to England, April 22nd, and found everything in the utmost confusion. The Duke of Grafton, as I have said, determined to resign; Mr. Conway very ill, and sick of the fatigue of his office, which he executed with inconceivable and scrupulous attention; Lord Bute’s faction giving no support; and the Court discouraging all men from joining the Administration. A greater embarrassment had fallen on the Ministers: Mr. Pitt was grown impatient for power; and, after having discouraged Lord Rockingham from seeking his aid or protection, began to wonder that he was not courted to domineer; and he betrayed his ambition so far as to complain that the Administration had had his support, and now neglected him. Yet, on Grafton’s threats of quitting the Seals, Pitt intreated that nobody might quit for him: things were not ripe for him; it would let in Grenville and the Bedfords, the worst event of all, he said, for this country. Yet, if the Ministers made any direct advances to him, he was coy and wayward, and would treat only with his Majesty. Lord Mansfield and Mr. Yorke, who had great weight with Lord Rockingham, and were both jealous of Lord Camden; and the Duke of Richmond, now returned to England, and incited by Lord Holland to oppose Pitt; kept alive Lord Rockingham’s resentment, and prevented any direct negotiation. Thus circumstanced, Pitt’s temper broke forth. George Onslow had proposed, in order to save fifteen or twenty thousand pounds a year on the militia, to reduce one serjeant in each company, and the pay of the militia-clerks from fifty to twenty-five pounds a year. This reformation Lord Strange opposed; and the Ministry, not thinking it worth a division, gave it up. The opportunity, however, was seized by Pitt, to whom the plan had not been communicated. He went to the House, and made a vociferous declamation against the Ministry, who, he said, aimed at destroying the militia; he would go to the farthest corner of the island to overturn any Ministers that were enemies to the militia. This was all grimace: he did not care a jot about the militia.