On the preceding Saturday, the King had sent for his Royal Highness, and had told him, in the kindest terms and most explicit words, that he put himself wholly, in this affair, into his hands; that he saw plainly the propriety of his advice. For which reason he ordered him to go the next morning to Mr. Pitt, with full powers from him to treat with Mr. Pitt, and to come into the constitutional steps he had before mentioned as essential to the country; as also, that his Majesty was not backward to lean to his foreign politics, if he (Mr. Pitt) should think it most beneficial, when he saw how affairs then stood. His Royal Highness told me that he had patience to attend to very long discourses, which Mr. Pitt held on the subject, in which the Duke declared he could not always follow him: as he was sometimes speaking of himself as already the acting Minister, and then would turn about by showing how impossible it was for him ever to be in an employment of such a nature, and always would end by observing that if such and such measures were pursued, he would applaud them loudly from whatever men they came. Mr. Pitt also told his Royal Highness, that if an Administration went in on such ground as he had laid down, he would exhort his friends—nay, his brothers, to accept; but that he doubted much whether the latter (meaning Lord Temple and J. Grenville) would.
Mr. Pitt’s plan abroad was, for a close union with the northern Courts of Germany, together with Russia, to balance the Bourbon alliance, to which the Duke gave the answer I before mentioned, and that the King was ready to support Mr. Pitt in any alliance that he should judge the most valid to check any attempts that might arise from the family compact of the House of Bourbon. At home, Mr. Pitt lamented (and in which the Duke most sincerely joined) the infringement on our constitution in the affair of the Warrants, left still undecided, though twice before Parliament; the army degraded, as well as our liberties struck at, by the dismission of officers who had taken the part in Parliament which their consciences prompted them to, so much to their honour, though contrary to their interest; and in addition to these, should be taken into consideration the propriety of rewarding the uprightness of Lord Chief Justice Pratt at such a crisis, by giving him a peerage. To Mr. Pitt’s question to the Duke, whether the Great Seal was promised to Mr. Charles Yorke? his Royal Highness could only answer, that he could not say how far the King had engaged himself with that gentleman. The Duke did not tell me what I afterwards heard from Mr. Pitt, that the Duke had that day mentioned it to be the King’s wish to have Lord Northumberland at the head of the Treasury. If it was mentioned, it is very clear that it was almost as soon dropped; and I am confident that it was not, that day, the Duke’s desire any more than that of Mr. Pitt. In which case, I think it was possible that it was named more to feel Mr. Pitt’s notion or affections to that quarter, or perhaps, by a policy very unnecessary with so great a man, thinking it might be a concession that would please, when he found that Lord Temple would be agreeable to the King in that office. His Royal Highness, often, as he told me, pressed Mr. Pitt to chalk out to the King a list of such as he would wish to fill all the posts of business, which, the Duke answered for, the King would instantly adopt. This was to no purpose; and the Duke was obliged to return to Richmond with the unpleasant account of his ill success.
The day following, the Duke, by his Majesty’s command, was employed in endeavouring to form an Administration without Mr. Pitt, and to that end Lord Lyttelton was sounded, to be placed at the head of the Treasury, with Mr. C. Townshend as the Chancellor of the Exchequer. These gentlemen both thought the ground too weak to stand long upon, and wished to decline it. The latter of them accepted the Pay Office, two days after, under the old Ministry. Many different posts were thought of and proposed for me, during this arrangement, but none of them ever came to my ears till my coming to London, as it was unnecessary I should know of them till the greater posts were fixed on and accepted. The King, on the day following, disappointed of this plan also, with his present Ministry at the door of the closet, ready to resign, was under a difficulty, and in such a situation that he knew not which way to turn. The Duke’s advice then was, as the lesser evil of the two, to call in his old Administration rather than to leave the country without Ministers while the town was in a tumult, raised against the Duke of Bedford by the weavers, and the House of Lords passing the most strange as well as violent resolutions.
On the Wednesday morning Mr. Grenville, in the name of the rest, acquainted the King that, before they should again undertake his affairs, they must lay before him some questions to be answered by his Majesty; on which the King, taking him up, said, “Terms, I suppose you mean, sir; what are they?” Mr. Grenville answered, that they should expect further assurance that Lord Bute should never meddle in the State affairs, of whatsoever sort; that Mr. Mackenzie (his brother) should be dismissed from his employment; that Lord Holland should also meet with the same treatment; that Lord Weymouth should be named Lord-Lieutenant to Ireland, and that Lord Granby should be appointed Commander-in-Chief. He then left the King, from whom they were to have their answer the next day. Mr. G. Grenville, on that day also, took the lead in the name of the rest; and the King, advised by the Duke of Cumberland, except in that point relating to himself, told them he would never give up the possibility of employing his uncle on an emergency, which he should do if he put any one in the post of Commander-in-Chief; that he assented to the others, though against his opinion; and that he supposed they would not press him to break his word, which he had given to Mr. Mackenzie; but that he was ready to give up the management of the Scotch affairs, if they would leave him in as Privy Seal to that kingdom. On their still insisting on his total dismission, the King was obliged to assent; and then, by their friends, they were considered as much stronger than they ever had been.
This affair being thus concluded, after having paid my duty at the King’s levee, I returned again into the country, and soon waited upon his Royal Highness, at Windsor Lodge, during the races. The Duke of Cumberland was over at Hayes the day after I went back to Wakefield Lodge; and though Mr. Pitt had two long conferences, in consequence, with the King, and in the latter on Saturday, May the 19th, had expectation that a thorough change would have taken place, according to the fullest of our wishes. Our hopes, however, were strangely thwarted by the disinclination of Lord Temple, who made such use of the mention of the Earl of Northumberland for the Treasury, as to stagger Mr. Pitt himself, as I conjectured. But the cause of the failure of this negotiation was imputed differently, according as the partialities and prejudices of political men led them to represent it: that no obstacle arose from his Majesty, I am perfectly assured. Those with whom I chiefly consorted were much inclined to blame Mr. Pitt, who, as they said, had carte blanche from the King. Mr. Pitt, on the other hand, would not allow that this was the case; and he observed that the expression itself was unfit to be used on such an occasion; and Mr. J. Grenville had assured my brother that Mr. Pitt was much hurt to find the latter offer, to which he had acceded, broken off before Mr. Pitt had returned his answer. Mr. J. Grenville added, that the reconciliation with George Grenville did not regard the public.
In the meanwhile, I received a letter from my brother, who mentioned the conversation alluded to with Mr. J. Grenville, in which that gentleman had also declared his own thoughts on the late negotiation, adding, that Mr. Pitt desired much an opportunity of explaining the whole to me. My brother pressed me strongly from himself, as well as from Mr. Meynell and other of my friends, to see Mr. Pitt as soon as possible, in order that I might be able to clear up and put a stop to divisions that this whole affair had made among friends eager to defend the part those to whom they were most attached had taken in it. I returned for answer to my brother, that I must have some plainer certainty of such a wish of Mr. Pitt’s, and that I would desire him to go to Hayes to know whether the case was as represented, and to lay before him my thoughts of his conduct on the occasion, which, partial as I was to him, even to me appeared unfathomable, and to want great explanation: I even offered, in case of anything having been misunderstood, that I should be too happy to be thought worthy of being employed by him, either to get explained or renewed a measure that appeared to me the only one by which our King and country could attain their ancient glory. Immediately on the receipt of my letter, my brother went to Hayes, and having heard from Mr. Pitt the whole relation, he transmitted the chief purport to me that same evening in the following letters.
“London, Wednesday, May 29.
“Dear Brother,
“At the end of my conversation with Mr. Pitt, I asked if I should write word to you that he was resolved not to renew the negotiation; he said, Resolved was a large word, and desired I would express myself thus: ‘Mr. Pitt’s determination was final, and the negotiation is at an end.’ These are his own words. As to your coming, he shall be extremely happy to have the honour of seeing you, but would be ashamed to bring you to town for so little an object; yet, if you should come to London, would not only be proud to see you at Hayes, and talk things over, but, if he could walk on foot to London, and pay his respects to you, he would do it. Having said this, at your own leisure, any time within a week or so, if you come to London, he should think himself happy to see you at Hayes.
I am, &c.,
“Charles Fitzroy.”
* * * * *
(Without date.)
“Dear Brother,
“My other is a formal answer to my commission; this is a private account of my conversation at Hayes, as near as I can recollect the different heads, and shorter in substance. Mr. Pitt two hours incessant talking. It is quite private between us—I mean you and myself. 1st, I found he had not been acquainted with J. Grenville’s conversation with me; upon my telling it to him in part, he said, it might have come from Lord Temple, but that the different periods were not exactly stated. He then went through every part of what had passed, and made his remarks with several refinements upon manner and words, and often declared his unwillingness to engage again in office. He rested the whole objections of this negotiation upon the transactions, opening with the King’s wish to have Lord Northumberland at the head of the Treasury: at the same time he expressed that he, Mr. Pitt, did not desire Lord Temple should be there; but that he thought the whole transaction a phantom, and could never have been intended serious. He declared it impossible for him and his Royal Highness to talk a different language as to fact, but that nothing like carte blanche was ever hinted. (N.B.—he thinks that an improper phrase, as it sounds like capitulating.) He talked much of Revolution, families personally from their weight but unconnected and under no banner. For all that was factious. He mentioned the great popular points: restitution of officers, privileges, &c., &c., change of system of politics, both domestic and foreign; said everything you would like, and resolved nothing but retirement. I must add the highest commendations of his Royal Highness, his judgment, abilities, integrity, &c., &c.; but said, that ‘no man in England but himself would have brought such terms,—no, not even Lord Bute.’ He left me totally in the dark, further than I could easily distinguish he thinks that it was not meant to have it his Administration.
“For God’s sake, see him! it must not be to-morrow, as he has his reconciling dinner with George Grenville: this he told me. The Duke of Cumberland goes to the birthday, so you may come on Monday, if you will, to see Mr. Pitt, and take the birthday on Tuesday, if you like it. Adieu.
Yours,
“C. F. R.”
It was not to be wondered at, if his Majesty, under these circumstances, was led to try every practical means by which he could form an Administration capable of relieving him from the irksome situation in which he stood with his present servants. Among others, I was myself commanded by the King, through the Duke of Cumberland, to wait on Mr. Pitt at Hayes, and to bear to him his Majesty’s wishes to be informed what steps would be the fittest for his Majesty to take in order to constitute an Administration of which Mr. Pitt was to be the head, and which might, through a confidence of the principles and abilities of the other Ministers, give satisfaction to his people. His Royal Highness told me, that if I had any doubt as to the authority, I might receive it from the King himself.