In a few days after this, Rose Fuller moved to refer to the committee the petitions of the merchants on the severe clogs laid on the American trade. Grenville, as madly in earnest as Pitt was affectedly so, vehemently opposed that motion, and called it a sweeping resolution. They would next attack, he supposed, the sacred Act of Navigation. Burke bitterly, and Beckford and Dowdeswell, ridiculed him on the idea of any Act being sacred if it wanted correction. Lord Strange went farther; said, he would speak out; should be for a free port in America, and for altering that part of the Act of Navigation that prohibited the importation of cotton not the growth of our own islands.[254] Charles Townshend said he was sorry to find that convenience was to give way to dignity. For his part he would call for a review of the Act of Navigation. This drew on warm altercation between him and Grenville, in which it was no wonder that Townshend’s wit and indifference baffled Grenville’s tediousness and passion.
The idea of a free port in America had been taken up by the Ministers, and that intention was now declared to the hearty satisfaction of the merchants. But this plan too, to humour Beckford’s local interests and his own spleen to the Ministers, was harshly and inconsiderately censured by Pitt, but with ill-success to his popularity, the scheme being grateful to the City. He was not more fortunate in his next step. The Ministers thinking themselves bound to give the last blow to General Warrants, which had now been decided in Westminster Hall to be illegal, moved a resolution of their being illegal and a breach of privilege. Grenville, hoping to squeeze out a little popularity from the same measure, moved to bring in a bill for taking them entirely away. This happening while Mr. Pitt was in his hostile mood, he seconded Grenville’s motion; but his lending himself thus to the champion of those warrants, highly offended the Ministerial Whigs, and drew on him much severity from Sir George Saville and Lord John Cavendish. Norton told Mr. Pitt privately that he had got from Carteret Webbe Mr. Pitt’s three warrants, and offered them to him; but Pitt refused to accept them, and said he had always declared he would justify his own warrants. At the same time he dropped to him that he wondered he (Mr. Pitt) had not understood Lord Bute’s speech on the Stamp Act. The Opposition, to purge Lord Temple from being the instigator of Wilkes in his attacks on the Scotch and the Tories, now produced a letter from the former to the latter, dissuading him from such national and general acrimony. This letter had been seized among Wilkes’s papers. But if it palliated the disposition to mischief in the one brother, it laid open the malice of the other; and Grenville was severely tasked for having connived at Webbe’s suppressing this letter in enmity to his brother. Mr. Pitt avowed to the House that he thought Carteret Webbe gently dealt with in not being expelled.
The night I arrived, the Duke of Richmond came to me to intreat Mr. Conway to go on without Mr. Pitt, who had offended both the Administration and the City: and he told me there were thoughts of softening towards Lord Bute, and of suffering his brother Mackenzie to have a place. The plan of diverting the enmity of Lord Bute was not at all repugnant to my opinion. From the moment the Administration had come into place, I had seen the necessity of it. Justice demanded the restitution of Mackenzie. The Ministers could neither destroy the King’s confidence in his Favourite, nor get rid of him by force. He was in no employment, nor had they any proofs in their hands that would authorize impeachment. Ungrounded impeachment would have purged him—perhaps have made him popular. Two options only remained: to quit their places, if they thought it for their honour not to temporize with Bute; or to temporize with him. Why I preferred the latter, these were the reasons: if those Ministers surrendered their power, where was there another set of honest men to replace them? They could mitigate, perhaps ward off, the evil designs of the Court, while the executive part of government remained in their hands. If they resigned it, it must fall into the hands of Mr. Pitt, who must either take his obnoxious brothers Temple and Grenville, or lean entirely on Lord Bute; and with all my admiration of Mr. Pitt, I doubted whether he would not make too complacent a Minister to prerogative; or Grenville and the Bedfords (the worst of all) must resume their power, and they had smarted too severely for their attacks on the Favourite, not to have profited of that experience. The Nation had once escaped from that coalition. Any system was preferable to the return of it.
I told the Duke of Richmond, that though I was glad to find Lord Rockingham and his friends were grown more reasonable, yet I thought the moment not suited to the experiment. There was another plan which ought first to be tried, and that was to endeavour once more, at any price, to acquire the accession of Mr. Pitt. Should he be omitted, it would throw him into the hands of his brothers and the Bedfords, or of Lord Bute—perhaps of all together. At least, should he refuse to join with the Administration, it would put him in the wrong, and damage his popularity, his sole strength. Lord Rockingham came to me still more eager for what the Duke had proposed. I adhered to my point, though I agreed they might try to go on, if Mr. Pitt should prove unreasonable, and Mr. Conway (who was ill in the country) should not think himself obliged to resign with the Duke of Grafton, who had brought him into Parliament. Grafton had promised Lord Camden (which indicated that he acted in concert with, or by direction of Pitt) to come to town in two days, and resign; yet his Grace himself had been offended at Mr. Pitt’s conduct, and had said, if he was haughty ought of place, what would he be when in? He should pity those who were to act under him.
April 25. Mr. Conway came to town, and agreed with me on the necessity of trying Mr. Pitt once more, though he did not think the King could be induced to see him. On the 27th the Duke of Grafton came to me, and Mr. Conway and I persuaded him to defer his resignation a few days; though he said he could not trust the King, who had promised that Lord Bute’s faction should support the Administration after the repeal of the Stamp Act was passed, which during the whole time of its discussion they had pretended they could not come into, as they had all concurred in the Act; yet when the repeal was over, their conduct continued the same. This consideration staggered Conway; and he told me, that if he should now resign for Mr. Pitt, the latter would certainly restore him, and entrust the House of Commons to him, as he had declared he would. This reflection showed Conway was more reconciled to power than he pretended to be,—and yet it was but transient ambition. It returned at times, but never was permanent; and even when he had quitted or declined supreme power, he did not give himself less to the fatigue of business, which yet was his standing objection. He could not enjoy so insignificant an office as the Board of Ordnance without making it slavery, and yet could not bear to be Secretary of State!
The Duke of Grafton, however, gave notice to the King that he would resign. The King begged him to defer it for a few days. Thus pressed, I prevailed with the Duke and Mr. Conway to go to Mr. Pitt, and intreat him to give some facility to his own accession. He complained that Lord George Sackville had been restored to employment to affront him personally: said he himself had been twice admitted to treat personally with his Majesty, and therefore hoped he might have that honour again. Several times he threw out Grenville’s name (to intimidate), and said he did not know what Lord Temple would do; he had had no intercourse with him for several months. To part of the Administration he professed great civility. Mr. Conway told him he was sure the King would not send for him. He answered, that he looked on that as a design not to let him come in. The fact was, the King, not desirous of the junction of Pitt and the actual Ministers, and choosing that Pitt should solely to him owe his admission, pleaded that he had sent so often for Mr. Pitt in vain, that he would condescend no more—a resolution his Majesty was at that very time in the intention not to keep.
On the 1st of May the Ministers had a meeting at the Chancellor’s, to determine what their plan should be on Grafton’s resignation and Pitt’s refusal; Mr. Conway having been induced to retain the Seals at the earnest request of the other Ministers, rather than break up their whole Administration. The King had ordered them to give him their proposals in writing, expecting, at least hoping, that they would at last propose connection with Lord Bute. They proposed that the King should promise to support them, and turn out those who should not act with them; this, however, they forbore to deliver to the King in writing. The Chancellor said, if they determined to go on, he would support them, but he did not think this a business proper for the Council. Conway replied, they were met as Ministers, and at the King’s desire. Some were for offering a place to Mackenzie; but Newcastle said their friends would dislike it; he had seen several who were against it. Lord Egmont told them fairly not to flatter themselves (and no doubt he spoke by authority); even a place for Mackenzie would not satisfy. Lord Bute’s friends were powerful, and would expect confidence. They broke up in disorder. Conway reported to the King what had passed. He replied coldly, “I thought you would not settle anything at one meeting.” Three days afterwards he bade them try for support, and inquire if Lord Bute’s friends would not support them, which was bidding them unite with the latter.
In the room of the Duke of Grafton I resolved to try to make the Duke of Richmond Secretary of State. Not that I could flatter myself with the duration of the system; but as I knew the Duke had better talents than most of the Ministers, and would be more moderate, I thought he would be likely to bring them to such a temper as might prevent their dissolution then, and would be of use to them if they remained in power. My friendship for him made me desirous, too, to obtain that rank for him, that, although he might enjoy it but a very short time, he might have pretensions to the same place, if ever they recovered their situation. He was apt to be indolent if not employed: the Secretary’s Seals might inspire him with more taste for business. I first mentioned the thought to himself, and found him pleased with it; and then engaged him to ask Mr. Conway’s interest, with whom I myself made it a point. Conway liked the motion, but said he was so nearly[255] connected with the Duke of Richmond, that he did not care to ask it; always preferring his own character to the service of his friends. I acted, however, so warmly in it, and Lord Rockingham took it up with so much kindness to the Duke, that we surmounted Conway’s delicacy, and the Cabinet Council proposed it to the King. His Majesty, who had never forgiven the Duke of Richmond, objected strongly to that choice; said the Duke was too young (though as old as Grafton), and desired it might be first tried if Lord Hardwicke would not accept the Seals. Lord Hardwicke, a bookish man, conversant only with parsons, ignorant of the world, and void of all breeding, was as poor a choice as could have been made; and being sensible himself that he was so, declined the offer; yet to avoid taking Richmond, and to keep within the circle of Lord Rockingham’s friends, his Majesty next proposed to make the Attorney-General, Yorke, Secretary of State. If the elder brother was ill-qualified for that office, the younger was still more so, being ignorant of languages and of Europe, and read in nothing but the learning of his profession. Lord Rockingham, as civil as the King, yielded to make this trial too; but at the same time told the King that he and his friends, finding the precariousness of their situation, wished to resign their employments. The King begged they would not, said he should be greatly distressed, and had nobody to replace them. Yorke declining the Seals, they were at last bestowed on the Duke of Richmond, who in answer to the notification he received from Lord Rockingham, marked his being sensible how little he had been his Majesty’s choice. He entered, however, on his office with all the ardour and industry that I had expected, and had every qualification to make him shine in it. He had such unblemished integrity, and so high a sense of his duty and honour, that in the preceding winter Lord Powis[256] having been exposed in the House of Lords for sordid meanness and injustice to Lady Mary Herbert,[257] the sister of the last Marquis, from whose bounty Lord Powis had received his estate, and yet withheld from her a scanty annuity, the Duke of Richmond consulted the Chancellor to know if there was no precedent of expelling a Peer, so little was his Grace possessed by what is called l’esprit de corps.
But though the Seals were given to the Duke of Richmond, several other places of importance and rank remained vacant; nor could any man be found that would accept them, being discouraged by the discountenance with which the King treated his Ministers. Nor did it stop there; Lord Howe[258] resigned his post, declaring he could not co-operate unless Mr. Pitt was Minister, an extraordinary strain of delicacy in a man who had accepted a commission at the Board of Admiralty from Mr. Grenville on the fall of Mr. Pitt, and his new post from the present Ministers on the fall of Mr. Grenville. Yet when the Ministers represented to the King the disgrace it brought upon his Government to have so many employments lie unfilled, and even offered to make Mr. Mackenzie Vice-treasurer of Ireland, his Majesty declined that place for him, but advised them to get all the strength they could. Lord Bute’s friends owned that it was expected the Ministers should employ their faction, in particular the Earl of Northumberland and Sir Fletcher Norton. The last none of them would hear of; and even I, who for the reasons I have given, wished them not to proscribe a party without whom they could not be Ministers, advised them to resign rather than stoop to adopt so bad a man, so lately, to their credit, cashiered by themselves. In truth, there was nothing but obstinacy in some, and irresolution in others. The nearer their fall, the more Lord Rockingham grew inclined to preserve his power by humouring the King; while Lord John Cavendish was inflexible to Bute, and Mr. Conway totally irresolute what part to take.
Not so the Court faction. Dyson opposed the tax on windows, and yet the Opposition was beaten by four to one. When the bill passed the Lords, the Duke of Grafton expressed great regard for some of the Ministers; but the nation, he said, called for the greatest abilities, and for all abilities; and though himself had borne a general’s staff, he would with pleasure take up a mattock and spade to be of what use he could. The Duke of Bedford forced Lord Rockingham to rise and say a few words.