Wilberforce had written to Lord Ellenborough on the evils of his having a seat in the Cabinet, Lord Ellenborough being at that time Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, and the next letter contains Lord Ellenborough's defence of his conduct, which does not err on the side of brevity and which Wilberforce describes as "a very handsome answer."
Lord Ellenborough to Mr. Wilberforce.
"Bloomsbury Square,
"February 4, 1806.
"My dear Sir,—I sit down to thank you for the favour of your letter in the very instant in which I have received it. I regret very much that I have no opportunity of personal communication with you on the subject of it: if I had I could explain more perfectly and unreservedly than I can do by letter all the motives which have induced my reluctant acquiescence in a nomination of myself to a place in the Cabinet. The situation has not only not been sought by me, but I appeal to every member of the Government about to be formed who is acquainted with the transaction, whether it was not accepted by me with extreme reluctance, and after objections raised by myself which nothing but a superior sense of the present duty and a prospect of present usefulness to the public would have surmounted. If I had felt that a situation in the Cabinet would have placed me under circumstances inconsistent with the due and impartial discharge of my judicial functions, no consideration on earth would have induced me to accept it. A member of the Cabinet is only a member of a Select Committee of the Privy Council, of which Privy Council at large every justice of the K.B. is of course a member. In that larger Privy Council his Majesty may and frequently does take the opinion of its members on matters which may come in question judicially before some of them. But I think that no man can correctly act in both capacities, and therefore when a question of a high criminal nature was about a year ago under discussion at a Privy Council at which I was particularly desired by the Chancellor to attend, I stipulated expressly with my Lord Chancellor that I should not be included in a Special Commission to try the offence then under consideration. I think both my Lord C. J. Holt, and very lately my Lord C. J. Eyre would have done better to have forborne being present at the preliminary inquiries before the Privy Council, the subjects of which in the result might be, and afterwards in fact were, tried before them; but the objection is not so much in my opinion that I might be led to participate in the counsels of the Executive Government upon questions connected with the criminal jurisdiction which I am to exercise elsewhere (because from these I should of course invariably withdraw myself) but because it might give a political cast and bias to a judicial mind, might generate views of ambition, and destroy that indifference and impartiality on all questions which is the proper characteristic of a British judge, and even if it had not that effect, it might be supposed by the world at large to produce it, which very opinion of others would detract much from the public credit and consequent usefulness of the person so circumstanced.
"The consideration of this objection at first gave my mind no small degree of anxiety. I was conscious to myself that I had no views of ambition to gratify. Those views, if I had entertained any such, would have been better consulted by accepting the Great Seal, and with it a highly efficient place in the public Councils—but which I had already refused—indeed every view of that kind has been long since more than satisfied. I lent myself at the earnest solicitation of others to the great public object of forming a strong and united administration, which, perhaps, without my consent to accept this situation could not, from particular circumstances and difficulties which I am not at liberty to state, have been formed.
"In accepting it I have stipulated that I should not be expected to attend except on particularly important occasions, and on such occasions some of my predecessors and particularly Lord Mansfield has, I understand, been called upon for his advice, and indeed, in virtue of my oath as Privy Councillor I am bound to give that advice when required.
"Will you acquit me of vanity?—I hope you will, when I give one reason more for my consenting to become for a time (I hope it will be a short one) an ostensible member of his Majesty's select and confidential Council. As I had, so I hoped I should be understood to have, no motive of ambition or interest inducing me to take this place in his Majesty's Councils. I had in general been supposed on most subjects to think for myself. I had, I believe, been considered in general as a zealous friend to the just prerogatives of the Crown. I had no particular stain upon my private character: in the miscellaneous composition of every administration, and of this, amongst others, I thought a person such as I might be esteemed to be, and on the ground of that estimation particularly, would be an ingredient not wholly without its use.
"So it appeared to some of my friends. So it did (I speak it in confidence) particularly to Lord Sidmouth, as to the purity of whose views and conduct in the formation of the present arrangement I can bear the fullest testimony, and whose earnest request (I speak it still in the same confidence) overcame my reluctance, and induced me to make this sacrifice of private convenience and to incur the hazard which your kind and honourable letter represents to me as greater than I had thought it, of suffering in the good opinion of others. If, after this explanation, unavoidably less perfect than I could have wished to make it, you shall still retain your unfavourable opinion of the step I have taken, I shall learn it from you (and I am sure in that case you will have the frankness to tell me so) with inexpressible pain. As long as I shall continue a member of his Majesty's Councils (and I hope the necessity which induced my acceptance of the situation will not be of long continuance) I will give a faithful, honest, and fearless opinion upon the subjects under consideration, and, although it is possible that good men may doubt of the prudence or propriety of my conduct in accepting it, I am confident that no good man who shall have the means of knowing the actual course I shall pursue in that situation will have reason to blame it. The explanation I have given you is entirely confidential. With an anxious wish consistently to perform all the various duties which press upon me at this moment and to preserve the good opinion of good men, and especially of one whom on many accounts I have so long and so highly esteemed as yourself,
"I remain, my dear sir,
"Most sincerely and faithfully yours,
"Ellenborough."
In 1802, on the supposition that Lord Wellesley's resignation as Governor-General of India was imminent, an idea had been entertained that Lord Castlereagh should be offered the Governor-Generalship, and Wilberforce had been asked to approach him on the subject. From Lord Camden's letter to Wilberforce, given below, it will be seen that Pitt had objected to an appointment that would take Lord Castlereagh from the House of Commons, which he thought should be the theatre of his future fame.