This bargain implied the shelving of Lord Loughborough, who for five years had attached himself to the Whigs in the hope of gaining the woolsack. Had Fox been in England, it is unlikely that he would have sanctioned this betrayal of a friend in order to gain over an enemy. But, with Sheridan as go-between, and the Prince as sole arbiter, the bargain was soon settled. Light has been thrown on these events by the publication of the Duchess of Devonshire’s Diary. In it she says: “He [Sheridan] cannot resist playing a sly game: he cannot resist the pleasure of acting alone; and this, added to his natural want of judgment and dislike of consultation frequently has made him commit his friends and himself.”[640] Perhaps it was some sense of the untrustworthiness of Sheridan which led Fox, in the midst of a Continental tour with Mrs. Armstead, to return from Bologna at a speed which proved to be detrimental to his health. After a journey of only nine days, he arrived in London on the 24th. It was too late to stop the bargain with Thurlow, and he at once informed Sheridan that he had swallowed the bitter pill and felt the utmost possible uneasiness about the whole matter.[641]
The Whigs now had a spy in the enemy’s citadel. At first Pitt was not aware of the fact. The holding of several Cabinet meetings at Windsor, for the purpose of sifting the medical evidence, enabled Thurlow to hear everything and secretly to carry the news to the Prince. Moreover, his grief on seeing the King—at a time when the Prince’s friends knew him to be at his worst[642]—was so heartrending that some beholders were reminded of the description of the player in “Hamlet”:
Tears in his eyes, distraction in his aspect,
A broken voice, and his whole function suiting
With forms to his conceit.
Such at least was the judgement of the discerning few, who, with Fanny Burney, saw more real grief in the dignified composure of Pitt after that inevitably painful interview. Authority to “inspect” the royal patient was entrusted to Thurlow, who thus stood at the fountain head of knowledge. Yet these astute balancings and bargainings were marred by the most trivial of accidents. After one of the Cabinet Councils at Windsor, Ministers were about to return to town, when Thurlow’s hat could not be found. Search was made for it in vain in the council chamber, when at last a page came up to the assembled Ministers and exclaimed with boyish frankness: “My Lord, I found it in the cabinet of His Royal Highness.” The flush which spread over the Chancellor’s wrinkled visage doubled the effect of the boy’s unconscious home-thrust.[643]
The question of the Regency has often been discussed on abstract constitutional grounds. Precedents were at once hunted up, namely, those of the years, 1326, 1377, 1422, and 1455, the last being considered on a par with the present case. But of course the whole question turned primarily on the probability of the King’s recovery. Here it should be noted that George III had been afflicted by a mental malady for a few weeks in the year 1765, and that a Regency Bill was drafted but the need for it vanished.[644] This fact was not widely known, but it must have come to the knowledge of the Prince of Wales. In view of the sound constitution and regular life of the King, there were good grounds for hoping that he would a second time recover.
Nevertheless, the reports of Sir George Baker, on behalf of Dr. Warren and the other physicians, as sent to Pitt, were at first discouraging. As they have not before been published it will be well to cite them here almost in extenso from the Pitt Papers, No. 228. They are dated from the Queen’s Lodge, Windsor:
Nov. 6. 9 o’clock:—Sir George Baker presents his comp^{ts} to Mr. Pitt. He is very sorry to inform Mr. Pitt that the King’s delirium has continued through the whole day. There seems to be no prospect at present of a change either for the better or worse. H.M. is now rather in a quiet state. Nov. 8, 1788. 8 o’clock:—The dose of James’s powder which the King had taken before Mr. Pitt left Windsor produced a gentle perspiration but no diminution of the delirium; a second dose taken six hours after the first, is now operating in the same manner but with as little effect upon the delirium. Nov. 10, 1788. 8 p.m.:—H.M. has but little fever, is very incoherent, but without vehemence or bodily efforts, though his strength appears to be very little impaired. Nov. 12, 1788:—H.M. talked in a quiet but incoherent way the whole night and is this morning just as he was yesterday. He has eaten a very good breakfast. Nov. 15, 1788. 10 p.m.:—H.M. has been deranged the whole day, in a quiet and apparently happy way to himself. Nov. 16. 10 a.m.:—This morning his discourse was consistent, but the principle upon which it went for the most part founded in error. Nov. 18, 10 a.m.:—H.M. had a good night, but the disorder remains unabated. Nov. 21:—H.M. has been ... more than once under the influence of considerable irritation. Nov. 22. 10 a.m.:—H.M. is entirely deranged this morning in a quiet good humoured way. Nov. 22:—H.M. shewed many marks of a deluded imagination in the course of the day. In the evening he was more consistent.
* * * * *