The very evening of the resignations he sent for Lord Gower, and offered to make him Master of the Horse, and to connect with the Duke of Bedford; but telling him that if they declined his offers, he could stand without them. With regard to Mr. Rigby, he had talked so hostilely on the East Indian affair, that he must explain his conduct before anything could be done for him. Lord Gower, impatient to return to Court, jealous of Rigby’s influence over his sister, the Duchess, and satisfied with such fair terms for himself, gladly accepted the commission, and set out next morning for Woburn to open it to the Duke of Bedford and obtain his acquiescence.
Rigby, in the mean time, whether apprehending that the wildness of Lord Chatham would overturn him, or overpersuaded by Grenville, or rather hoping no great emolument for himself, from Lord Chatham’s neglect of him and application through another, had preceded Lord Gower, and got to Woburn overnight. He found the Duchess as eager as her brother to return to Court, and the Duke prepared by her not to listen to his objections. The next day he had the mortification of seeing Lord Gower arrive, and of hearing the suspension imposed on himself till he should correct his behaviour. Deaf to his arguments and interest, the whole family accepted with thankfulness Lord Chatham’s overtures, and Lord Gower was remanded to town to notify their consent and the Duke’s intention to follow and ratify the treaty. Rigby remained a day behind, but could not recall the Duke from the alacrity with which he hurried to London.
But even before Lord Gower could arrive there, Lord Chatham, who rarely deigned to impart his measures to the rest of the Ministers, had now, with still less prudence, notified to the Council his offers to the Bedfords, in the style of one sure of their being accepted. At the same time, speaking of the resigners, he said, they were only the remnant of the late Duke of Cumberland’s party. Conway fired at the expression, and said he would hear no such language, nor ever bear disrespectful mention of the Duke of Cumberland’s name. Lord Chatham retracted; if he had not, Mr. Conway protested to me he would have left the Council and returned to it no more.
Lord Gower had gone on the Friday, and returned the next day with the Duke of Bedford’s assent; and the Duke himself arrived on the Monday. Yet, in that little interval, considerable events had happened, and a far more considerable imprudence of Lord Chatham. Admiral Saunders, a most gallant, but weak man, governed by Admiral Keppel and Lord Albemarle, had been persuaded by them to throw up his post of First Lord of the Admiralty, and join his old friends the Rockinghams.[308] The blow was heavy on Lord Chatham, but facilitated his treaty with the Bedfords, as he had thereby a Cabinet-Councillor’s place to offer them. Instead of profiting of the opportunity, and as if the Bedford faction were men easily satisfied, and with trifles, he would not wait for the Duke, but filled up the Admiralty with Sir Edward Hawke, Sir Piercy Brett, and Jenkinson—the two last in the room of Sir William Meredith and Keppel, resigners; at the same time causing Keppel to be struck out of the King’s Bedchamber. Sir Edward Hawke had as much merit in his profession and to his country as man could have, but no moment of rewarding him could have been more imprudently taken. Though the place might have been destined for him, still the faith of negotiation ought to have been observed till Lord Chatham could have satisfied the Bedfords and agreed with them on that disposition. And where was the policy of warning them that he meant to admit them into no office of confidence?
Rigby, too alert and too artful to let slip an incident so favourable to his inclination, and who saw from this step how little would be allotted to his party, and aware, from the treatment of the Rockinghams, that Lord Chatham meant little more than to break the Bedford connection too, inflamed the Duke of Bedford and all their friends with the indignity offered to them in the very hour of treaty. The Duchess had been left at Woburn, trusting to the impression she had made on her husband, whom she was now as solicitous to recover from Rigby’s influence, as in their younger intimacy she had been to place him there. Her security betrayed her; the Duke caught fire; and he who had thought the most bounded terms satisfactory, was now persuaded to carry to Lord Chatham a list of demands that comprehended half the employments in the Court-calendar, besides peerages for some of his friends.[309] Such enormous terms Rigby knew would not be granted; but the demand would palliate to their friends the total sacrifice that would have been made of them if he and one or two more had found their account in the first proposals. Lord Chatham received his Grace’s extravagant list, but told him he did not believe the King would comply with his demands. The next day he waited on the Duke and informed him that his Majesty was willing to make his son, Lord Tavistock, a peer: to appoint Lord Gower Master of the Horse, and Mr. Rigby Cofferer; but as for entering on other particulars of places and peerages, his Majesty would not hear of them. The Duke begged his Majesty might be thanked for his goodness to his son, but said his friends could not think of accepting on such terms.[310] Thus an end was put at once to the negotiation. In the list had been asked posts of Cabinet Councillor for Lord Gower, Lord Sandwich, Lord Weymouth, and the Duke of Marlborough, or the first vacant garter for the latter (the Duke’s son-in-law) after the King’s brother, Henry, the new Duke of Cumberland, and peerages for Lord Lorne and Mr. Brand,[311] though the Duke of Bedford, at the commencement of the treaty, had positively refused the former to solicit for him.[312]
The treaty evaporated, the vacant employments were filled with some of Lord Bute’s creatures, and any stragglers without connexion that could be picked up. Thus the Duke of Ancaster was made Master of the Horse to the King, and was succeeded in the same rank to the Queen by Earl Delawar, already her servant. Lord Hilsborough and Lord Despenser were appointed joint Postmasters; Nugent,[313] First Lord of Trade; and Stanley, Cofferer.
Conway’s disgusts were doubled by seeing himself reduced to act with scarce any but Lord Bute’s friends; and had Lord Chatham continued the effective Minister, would, I am persuaded, have resigned like the rest, for however gentle when he met with respect, he was minutely jealous of the smallest neglect, and incompatible with the haughty temper of Lord Chatham. Charles Townshend, restless in any situation, fond of mischief, and not without envy of the lead allotted to Conway, was incessant in inciting him to retire, by painting to him the pride and folly of Lord Chatham, the improbability of his maintaining such shattered power, and alarming him with threats of resigning and leaving him alone in the House of Commons.
To this mad situation had Lord Chatham reduced himself; first, by quitting the House of Commons and thereby parting with his popularity; secondly, by disgusting the Whigs, his best and firmest support; thirdly, by never communicating a syllable to Mr. Conway, nor trusting him, though his only friend in the House of Commons; fourthly, by turning out Lord Edgcumbe, when all opposition was damped and in a manner annihilated; and, lastly, by not gaining the Bedfords from Grenville, when it was in his power. He had nothing left to try, but whether by the mere influence of the Crown, without leaders, and almost without speakers in the House of Commons, he could govern against all the other parties,[314] who, though hating each other, would all probably unite against him.
Conway, however out of temper, supported honourably the duty of his station; and, in the course of the Bill of Indemnity, distinguished both his zeal and capacity. In the Committee, Grenville and Rigby moved to have stated the losses of those who had suffered by acting under the order of Council. Burke and Dowdeswell spoke on the same side; but Conway, by an artful speech, gained over Dowdeswell, and Grenville did not dare to divide the House. He next tried to avoid the preamble of the bill, and moved to adjourn. Charles Townshend and he had a sharp altercation, in which Townshend both ridiculed and flattered him. Lord Granby declared warmly for Lord Chatham; Conway spoke handsomely of him too, though intending to add censure to praise, but was interrupted by Rigby; and thus the praise remained alone. The Cavendishes having been consulted on the bill, would therefore not divide against it, and went away. Rigby, impatient to mark his resentment to Lord Chatham, and fondly thinking their numbers would appear formidable, even without the Cavendishes, advised to push a division; and Wedderburne actually divided the House when the Ministerial party amounted to 166, and the Opposition but to 48: a signal victory in Lord Chatham’s circumstances! But Lord Bute’s friends had signalized themselves in his support. Elliot and Dyson spoke for him; and Sir Fletcher Norton retired rather than vote against him. It was even suspected that Wedderburne, who, though of the same corps, commonly opposed like Norton, to force himself into place, had treacherously drawn on the division to expose the weakness of an Opposition without harmony; nor was there anything in Wedderburne’s character to counteract the suspicion. Some there were who believed that Lord Bute, apprehending the junction of Lord Chatham and the Bedfords, had, during the treaty, made overtures to the former, which had encouraged him to act so imprudently and cavalierly in that negotiation. But, if duped then, it never appeared afterwards that Lord Chatham had given himself up to a real connection with the Favourite.
If the Opposition were startled at their defeat, and Rigby did repent his precipitancy, Mr. Conway was not a little startled too. He saw Lord Chatham would stand, whether he quitted or not. He had declared against going into opposition; nor was it his inclination. Should he quit in those circumstances, he would become a cypher, and remain divested of his profession. I saw his difficulties and felt them. I told him that he had lately asked me whether I would advise him to stay and be turned out with disgrace with a falling Administration? I reminded him that in those circumstances I had acquiesced, and had allowed that he could not stay, nor support alone a system that hung on Lord Bute. But the case was altered now: it was plain the Opposition was too weak to demolish Lord Chatham; and therefore, as Lord Chatham was likely to continue in power, I wished him to stay in place likewise. At the same time I sent Lord Hertford to beg his Majesty would press Mr. Conway not to quit. The King said he had just written to Mr. Conway, and told him his Government depended on his conducting the business of the House of Commons. Lord Hertford replied, he believed his brother was more inclined to stay than he had been. The King said, eagerly, “How have you brought it about? I am sure you and Mr. Walpole have done it.”