LORD YARMOUTH’S CONDUCT
D’Oubril has written to Stroganoff[217] that he signed the preliminaries with Ld. Yarmouth’s approbation. Ld. Yarmouth in his dispatches says quite the contrary. Copies of the letters have been sent to St. Petersburg. Our Ministers are greatly displeased with Ld. Yarmouth for having presented his credentials the very day after d’Oubril signed, and are not without fear that he may be bullied or won into signing the preliminaries without further instructions. There are some unpleasant suspicions afloat about Ld. Y., especially upon the score of stock-jobbing.[218] General Clarke[219] is the person named to negotiate with him; he was employed upon d’Oubril’s business. The French already show a disposition since the signature of the Russian Treaty, to rise in their demands. They have thrown out hints that they expect St. Lucia and Tobago to be restored to them, and Ld. Y. has of his own head suggested that Cuba should be ceded to the King of Naples, who cannot be reduced to live as a fugitive or subject in the dominions of his son. Ld. Y. is suspected of concealments in his report of his negotiations. A messenger went off instructing him not to proceed in any way, but wait L.’s arrival. Notwithstanding their displeasure, Ld. Y. has been joined in the Commission with Ld. Lauderdale.
28th.—Mr. Fox nearly in the same state; his spirits are good, and he has still great hopes of recovery. He said this morning, ‘I hope my recovery is not so desperate as peace.’ The news from Paris is every day less favourable, so much that hints have been thrown out to Ld. Yarmouth about the restitution of Pondicheri and Surinam, and the other Dutch colonies in S. America, about the expulsion of the French Princes from England, and a restraint upon the licence of the journals. Ministers are much more discontented with Ld. Y. L. has been told in the most explicit manner by the Cabinet, that if he finds anything in Ld. Y.’s conduct to disapprove of, he has only to give a hint, and he shall be recalled.
Bonaparte is elated beyond his usual tone of insolence since he procured the Russian Treaty; he sent for the Austrian Chargé d’Affaires, and ordered him to signify to his master that he must lay aside the title of Emperor of Germany, and yield the precedence to France, and that he must assent to and recommend the alterations in the constitution of the Empire, which were proposed to be held at Frankfort on the 10th August. The Chargé d’Affaires pleaded that he durst not convey such a message to his Sovereign. ‘Pourquoi votre maître ne m’envoye-t’-il pas un ambassadeur, et pas un misérable parlementaire?’
29th.—Professor Dugald Stewart, who has just arrived from Edinburgh, is to go with L. to Paris. Gaeta is taken, and Sr. Sidney has met with some check in the kingdom of Naples.[220] L. had a conversation alone with Mr. F., in which he opened himself freely. He said he wished to retire from office till he got better, and to have Ld. H., whom he had always destined ultimately to succeed him, appointed to fill his place pro tempore, adding that he had been thinking of this for some time, but that he had put it off in the hope of being able to sign the peace before he retired. He bid L. ‘open the matter to Ld. Grenville,’ and added that he ‘would talk further on the subject to Ld. Grenville in 8 or 10 days.’ In a conversation which L. had with Ld. Grenville some time ago, during which they talked of Mr. Fox’s situation and of the small prospect of any amendment in his health, Ld. Grenville said, ‘That he hoped his own conduct had been such as to satisfy Mr. Fox’s friends since the period of their being connected together, and if that disastrous calamity should happen, and most disastrous indeed would it be for the country, he trusted, they would have no reason to be dissatisfied with any future arrangements that might take place.’
Sheridan, who dined here to-day, begged to talk to me privately. He said that it was the wish of many of Fox’s friends, whenever the state of his health should make it impossible for him to attend to the duties of his office, that Ld. H. should be appointed his successor; that such an appointment would be regarded by them as a pledge that the Whig Party was still to be kept up, and its principles maintained; that the Prince was very eager to have them carried into effect; that he had spoken to Windham, who seemed to listen with satisfaction. That he, ‘from delicacy, spoke to me instead of to Ld. H., and begged I would communicate the substance of them to him,’ He told me that George Byng and the second-rate sort of politicians were very eager upon the subject.
Cline, the surgeon, has seen Mr. Fox, and declares himself ready to perform the operation whenever the physicians shall judge it expedient, as he does not see any reason to think the result more formidable to Mr. F. than to any other person.
A SUCCESSOR TO FOX
Ld. Howick is full of plans for an Administration, in the event of Mr. Fox’s retirement, or worse. He takes for granted that neither the General or Ld. Fitzwilliam would choose to remain in office if F. were away. He would, in that case, make Whitbread Secretary at War, himself S. for the Home Department, Tom Grenville the Admiralty, Tierney the Board of Control, Ld. H., of course, the Foreign Office; and, said I, ‘Pray where do you put Lauderdale, ye first, greatest, and best lord?’
31st.—Lauderdale had an interview with Ld. Grenville, and repeated the substance of his late conversation with Mr. F.; Ld. G. listened with great attention, but made no reply. Just as L. went out, he called him back to beg that he would say to Ld. H. that, ‘He had many times abstained from going to Stable Yard, from an apprehension that if Mr. Fox should know he was there, he might suppose he was come upon business and make an effort to see him, which might do him harm; but that if he followed the dictates of his own inclination, he should be there every day,’ Tierney and Ld. Morpeth have both expressed to me very strongly their wishes and the necessity that Ld. H. should be the locum tenens for his uncle.