His Majesty had been graciously pleased at this time to summon a Chapter of the Garter, in order to invest me with the insignia of the Order; and the King did me the honour to observe, that he was pleased to have the greater satisfaction in conferring that favour, as I was one of the very few who had received it unsolicited. The Order of the Garter is a high distinction still, though certainly it is somewhat dropped from the ancient celebrity by the addition that was made to the number of the Knights some years after this.
In this month we were involved in a very serious and delicate business, which appeared at one time to be big with alarming consequences. A French frigate had come into the Downs without paying the compliment to his Majesty’s ships which the general instructions from the Admiralty to all commanders of ships direct them to require; but with which no nation except the Dutch ever complied,—and they in consequence of a treaty. An officer from a King’s ship went on board the French frigate, remonstrating with the commander on his conduct, and assuring him that he must insist on the compliment; but, meeting with no satisfactory answer, the lieutenant of our ship soon fired his first shot a-head of the French ship, and on perceiving no notice to be taken of his gun, he fired into the Frenchman with ball, and, as it was said, killed one of the men.
The proceeding was warmly resented by the Court of France, who required the fullest satisfaction for the affront, together with the dismissal from the service of the officer who had presumed, in time of perfect peace, to fire into a frigate belonging to the French King. Office papers were ransacked for precedents to justify the claim; few were found, and the paucity of these did not assist our cause. From the reign of Charles the Second, when a long and serious altercation took place on a similar occasion, and which may be found in the Memoirs of M. d’Estrades, and of his embassy here, one single instance (except the present) was found. This instance fell out while the Duke of Newcastle was Secretary of State, who had, on the complaint of the French Court, recommended to his late Majesty to break Lieutenant (afterwards Admiral) Smith: as soon as the Ambassador had acquainted his Court, Mr. Smith was restored to rank, and quickly promoted.
Finding that there was so little ground on precedent, it became our duty, as Ministers of the Crown, to get rid of this unpleasant incident in the best manner we were able, provided the national honour, and that of the flag, should not suffer in the explanation. Lord Weymouth reported to the Cabinet that, in the audience which he gave M. de Châtelet, his reply upon every memorial, and his language every day became more resolute, by insisting on a suitable satisfaction for the affront which had been done to the King, his master’s dignity. It was Lord Weymouth’s opinion also, that if we could find out some expedient, at the same time to save our own credit, the Ambassador would close with it. Lord Weymouth thought, from my knowledge of M. de Châtelet, that I might unofficially hold with him a language tending to bring about an arrangement which might save the honour of both parties. At the desire of the Cabinet I undertook it, hoping that Sir Edward Hawke would call on me the next morning, and state fully to me what, in his opinion, would, and what would not, save the honour of the navy and the lustre of the British flag.
In point of justice not one word can be said; but it may be a question whether the ideal sovereignty of the narrow seas be not essential in elevating the enthusiastic courage of our seamen; though they have now, in the year I am writing, and, I hope, will ever have the best of pleas, from their own incredible superiority in skill and bravery over those of any other country.
The morning after the meeting of the King’s servants, Sir Edward called on me early, and, in a long conversation, we discussed every means that could be devised to answer the present purpose; and at length agreed upon one expedient, of which I made successful use in my visit to the French Ambassador, on whom I called directly, and began by stating to him the object of my visit, namely, to endeavour, by a frank and open conversation with him, to hit off some means of preventing a breach between our two countries; and, in the course of our interview, I desired him, particularly, not to allow himself to be led away with false notions of the disposition of our country from the specimen he had observed of the disposition to riot and disorder, and to give me credit, when I assured him that all these would vanish on the breaking out of a war, especially on ground so popular as that of the honour of the flag, to carry which on with spirit every Englishman would part with his last shilling. He replied, that peace was the object of his wish, as much as I had professed it to be mine. Besides, recapitulating all that had passed with Lord Weymouth, he would impart this to me, as Duke of Grafton, “that nothing could urge Louis the Fifteenth into another war, except where his honour was concerned, and that he personally felt the present affront most sensibly;” he added, “that M. de Choiseul’s interest would suffer greatly by a war, and that he would show his disposition to avoid it, if such did present itself.”
The Ambassador proposed various schemes for reconciliation; but none of them came within my own notions of what might have been admissible by the nation. Those which I first mentioned met with no better reception from M. de Châtelet; and, after a long parley of two hours, we were near parting, when I thought I might lay before him, as the only means, the very proposal I had settled with Sir Edward Hawke. It was this, that the answer to the French King’s complaint, should be, to say that his Majesty could not do so great an injustice to a lieutenant in his service, as to punish him without hearing his account of this unfortunate transaction; and that, the officer having now sailed to the East Indies, such an account could not be obtained till the return of the lieutenant. I added, to M. de Châtelet, that his return would not be expected for three years, when the affair might be supposed to have slipped into oblivion. The Ambassador, after a little consideration, told me that he liked the proposal, and would do his endeavours to make it palatable to the Duc de Choiseul.
This arrangement succeeded so fully, that we have never heard one word more of the business, since the expedient was accepted. I do not know that I was ever so much elated as, in my walk home, turning in my thoughts the effects of my visit, and reflecting on the misery which probably would be warded off from the heads of so many individuals and families. I cannot give too full testimony of the candour and zeal with which the Ambassador took up the business, and recommended the expedient to his Court; his influence prevailed, and the recollection of this conduct increased my concern on hearing of the horrid death of him and his amiable lady upon a scaffold, during the frenzy of the Revolutions in France.
You recollect, my dear Euston, the resolution I had formed of retiring from my situation, whenever I could find the moment favourable; as, also, my remark on the visible and rapid decline of my friend Lord Camden’s favour at St. James’s. This latter circumstance served to confirm me strongly in the former; for I was not so blinded, as not to feel the ground around me to be treacherous and unsafe. Though the closet was still favourable and afforded all apparent support, yet I probably owed it to those to whom my principles could never be quite congenial, and who might, on some occasion where we differed, show to me my presumption and my insignificance, particularly as they expressed their attachment strongly, because I was emancipated from the chains of Lord Chatham and the burthen of Lord Camden.
Parliament was to meet on the 9th of January, 1770. The necessity of having a Chancellor to vindicate the law authority of the Cabinet was dinned into my ears in most companies I frequented; and it was particularly remarked, that Mr. Charles Yorke had taken no part in the whole business of the Middlesex election that need preclude him from joining in opinion with the decisions of the Commons. Such insinuations were very irksome to me; and, about the Court, I was still more harassed with them. At last, when I was passing a few Christmas holidays at Euston, Lords Gower and Weymouth came down on a visit. They informed me, that the King, on hearing their intention of going to Euston, had expressly directed them to say, that the continuance of the Lord Chancellor in his office could not be justified, and that the Government would be too much lowered by the Great Seal appearing in Opposition, and his Majesty hoped that I should assent to his removal, and approve of an offer being made to Mr. Yorke. My answer, as well as I recollect, was, that, though it did not become me to argue against his Majesty’s remarks on the present peculiar state of the Great Seal, I must humbly request that I might be in no way instrumental in dismissing Lord Camden.