The Prince of Wales went most heartily and unbecomingly with them, and lowered his dignity by soliciting office and places for his dependents, and by degrading himself into the size of a common party leader.
From this moment I withdrew entirely from official men, my determination being to act as if Mr. Pitt was alive, and to endeavour to regulate my political conduct, and that of those I influenced, on what I supposed would be his, were he still in existence, whether in or out of office.
I told this to Lords Bathurst and Camden on the 27th January, considering these two as more personally, and less politically, attached to him, than any one else, not excepting Canning himself.
On the 4th February, Lord Carrington came to me in consequence of my having canvassed him for his interest at Cambridge University for Lord Palmerston. This he promised me in the handsomest manner; but I was surprised—when I lamented Mr. Pitt’s death, and spoke of the wisdom and propriety of his friends’ acting together, and in conformity to his doctrines and principles—to find Lord Carrington lukewarm on the subject. He said he conceived “we were all now free to act as we pleased. All bond of union was dissolved; no obligation remained with anyone to abide by a party which had lost its leader, and with its leader everything.” He said this in so very positive a way, that I contented myself with saying my sentiments were directly contrary to his, but that it was not for me to dispute with him on a point rather of feeling than of party. Lord Carrington was profuse in his lamentations on the death of Pitt, and equally so in his profession of friendship and gratitude to him, and respect for his memory, and, as a proof, he instanced his wish, that the part of Mr. Pitt’s debts, arising from a loan his friends contributed to raise for him in 1800, should not be produced when the items of them were laid before the House. [N.B. the House had voted a public funeral, and to pay Mr. Pitt’s debts immediately after his death, which Wyndham (strange to say) opposed, giving as a motive that no public funeral had been decreed to Burke.] Lord Carrington, however, said he was overruled by the Bishop of Lincoln, Prettyman[10] (who had been Pitt’s private tutor at Cambridge), who assured him it was one of Pitt’s last dying requests, that the six friends who had advanced him certain sums should be repaid. (They were Lord Bathurst and Carrington, Steele, Bishop of Lincoln, and two others, who at the time never would take any acknowledgment, or ever expected to be repaid.) This assertion of the Bishop of Lincoln, Lord Carrington said, shut his mouth, and the debt was laid before the House, which raised his (Pitt’s) debts to 43,000l.
Ministers went on quietly, and with a very large majority, the whole year of 1806. In June an idea was suggested to make a push at them before the Recess, and I had several conversations with Canning, and one with Perceval on the subject, and constant ones with the Duke of Portland, who, by having undergone an operation for the stone, was wonderfully recovered.
MILITARY PLANS (1806).
Source.—Diary of Lord Colchester, 1861. Vol. ii., p. 49.
House of Commons.—Mr. Fox attended; and Mr. Wyndham opened his military plans: about 350 Members present. His speech lasted four hours. Lord Castlereagh spoke next—about an hour and a half. Mr. Fox about an hour, and Mr. Yorke the same; he was followed by Sir James Pulteney, General Tarleton, and Colonel Crawfurd, &c. The House rose at half-past one without any division; and leave was given to bring in four Bills. The first of which was for the repeal of the additional force, or Parish Recruiting Act; the others for further suspending the militia ballot; altering the levy en masse, or training Act; and for increasing the Chelsea Hospital privileges and allowances.
Mr. Wyndham’s plan consisted in these points:—
1. To supply, maintain, and increase the regular army, by recruiting for term of years, renewing the service at the end of seven and fourteen years: even for a further period; making twenty-one years in the whole. The second and third periods of renewed service to be attended with some small increase of pay, e.g. 6d. for the first, and 1s. per week for the second period, and an increased Chelsea pension to every soldier at the end of twenty-one years. Also an increase of widows’ pensions, and of the Compassionate List; and this to be the only mode of recruiting.
2. To reduce the militia gradually to its original or lowest standard, viz. about 36,000 for England, by not filling up the vacancies.