The arrangement which you are supposed to have proposed to the King, as necessary to your entering into his Majesty's service, is industriously spread about; and the very extensive and almost universal proscription of those who are at present in employment is propagated, with some animadversions of yours upon characters, the asperity of which is set forth in strong colouring. All this is too vague and general to trouble you with; but the particular assertion which I wished to have communicated to you in person is, that you proscribe the Duke of Bedford, and all his close friends and connections, without any further thoughts of Lord Gower or Rigby, who were to be excluded, not let down; and that his Grace might some time hence, but not at present, have a place, though not of business. Lord Sandwich his mind the distinguished part he had taken in public affairs.* His lordship then repeated the last word several times, with a calm and determined resignation, and, after a serious pause of some minutes, he desired to hear the treaty read; to which he listened with great attention, and recovered spirits enough to declare the approbation of a dying statesman (I use his own words) on the most glorious war, and most honourable peace, this country ever saw." Mr. Wood died in September 1771, in his fifty-fifth year. *Iliad, 1. xii. 322., thus translated by Pope: "Could all our care elude the gloomy grave, is gone, yesterday, to Woburn, with this account; having been first referred, for the truth of it, to the great person to whom you explained yourself. Rigby, who told me this, added, that it was not like you. If this communication be either useless or improper, there is already too much of it. You will excuse it for the uprightness of my meaning; who most heartily wish to see an end of all temporary, contemptible expedients, to retard a rational plan for restoring that dignity and confidence to administration which is lost; - a very difficult task, which becomes more so by weak procrastination, and must, sooner or later, fall to your share. I am told that on Tuesday there will be a secretary of state, to whom I may give up the papers. My most respectful compliments to Lady Chatham, and all your family. I am, with perfect truth and respect, dear Sir, Your most obedient humble servant, R. WOOD. P. S. Lord Bute's having taken leave of the King for a year ('), and Lord Shelburne's resignation, (1) The Earl of Hardwicke thus concludes his interesting narrative: "I shall now make you laugh, though some parts of what goes before make me melancholy, to see the King so committed, and his Majesty submitting to it, &c. But what I mean will make you laugh is, that the ministers are so stung with this admission that they cannot go on (and what has passed on this occasion will certainly make them less able to go on), and with my Lord Bute's having thus carried them to market in his pocket, that they say Lord Bute has attempted to sacrifice them to his own fears and timidity; that they do not depend upon him, and will have nothing more to do with him : if true, cannot be new to you. I am very sensible of the awkward (and in the light I see it, distressing to you) circumstance of Lord Sandwich being referred by the secretary of state to the great person. Though the contents of this letter are unknown to any body, and merely suggested by what I feel to be right for any use you please, yet duty and respect make it unbecoming in me wantonly to use that name. I wish the same respect may have been observed by my superiors. ROBERT WOOD, ESQ. TO MR. PITT. DEAR SIR, Brompton, September 6, 1763. THE letter which you did me the honour of writing on the third, entirely justifies the opinion I had of that matter. I hope the cautious use I have made of what you say, in a letter to Rigby, will not be disapproved by you, as I did not venture to quote you. The whole expectations of the present half-formed administration are from the effect which their misrepresentations will have upon the minds of people. (1) The Duke of Bedford and I have been very credibly informed, that both Lord Halifax and George Grenville have declared, that he is to go beyond the sea, and reside for a twelvemonth or more. You know a certain cardinal was twice exiled out of France, and governed France as absolutely whilst he was absent, as when he was present." (1) A comparison of Lord Hardwicke's narrative, de source, with the following particulars, "picked up" by Mr. Erskine, is to be in town this night to have the story, which was carried to Woburn, from its source, which is and transmitted to Mr. Mitchell at Berlin, will show the extravagant lengths to which the misstatements here spoken of were carried upon this occasion:- "You will probably," he says, "not be displeased with comparing such particulars as I have been able to pick up, with the more authentic accounts you have received from others. At Mr. Pitt's first interview with the King, he behaved with great modesty and decorum; but when he insinuated that his Majesty would doubtless be pleased, that Lord Bute and he should unite their counsels for the service, the King stopped him short, How! Mr. Pitt, do you mean to laugh at me? You must know, as well as me, that that nobleman is determined never more to take any share in the administration.' Mr. Pitt was, however, so moderate in his demands, and the King so condescending, that there seemed little reason to doubt of a happy issue to the conference. The next day Mr. Pitt and Lord Temple were at court; they bowed very low; the King spoke to them without constraint, but, as I thought, with apparent coolness. They, however, thought themselves so sure of success, that they summoned their friends to town. But, at the next conference (from what motive, I have not been able to learn), the scene was entirely changed; the style of a dictator was assumed; terms were no longer proposed but prescribed, and conditions exacted, that nothing but the most abject meanness or most absolute despondency could assent to; a total bouleversement of the government was demanded; an universal proscription of all who had served it boldly threatened, with some few invidious exceptions; and sic volo sic jubeo denounced a total annihilation of Royal authority. The whole frame of your government is disordered, and will require seven years at least to restore it to the state it was in eighteen months ago: your army is in the utmost confusion, and must no longer be governed by a secretary at war, totally ignorant of all military affairs; there must be a man of experience put at the head of it, a man of character, rank, and dignity, to give weight to his command.'-'I agree with you, Mr. Pitt,' replied the King, and by the picture you have drawn, Granby,' (this disconcerted him a little, and he replied) Or- or or Lord Albemarle. All you doubtless mean Lord most indecently made responsible for exaggeration, indeed for contradiction. those who voted for the peace must be turned out, and all the Tories to a man !'- 'Tories, Mr. Pitt? I protest I do not understand you; if you mean by Tories such, and such, and such, you will please to recollect you brought every one of them in yourself. Thus, unassisted, did the King debate the important point of his own sovereignty, with that able and (unfortunately) violent negotiator; and having, during the whole conference, preserved the utmost command of his temper, concluded it with these remarkable words;-'Should I consent to these demands of yours, Mr. Pitt, there would be nothing more left for me to do, but to take the crown from my own head, and place it upon yours, and then patiently submit my neck to the block!"" The following is an extract of a letter written, in cipher, by Sir Joseph Yorke to Mr. Mitchell, on the 27th of September:-"The negotiation with Mr. Pitt did not succeed; and was, I am told, too confined for him to come into. Since that, the vacant employments have been filled up-and the fashion is to say, the administration will hold. If they can do the King's business, and the nation's business, I shall be glad of it for my only partiality is for those; but, if they cannot, I shall be sorry to see they have embarked without widening the bottom. The only public event of consequence is the change of ministry in Spain. The retreat of Wall and the promotion of Grimaldi, with the nomination of Count Fuentes to succeed him at Paris, have roused the attention of all Europe; and proves that the old leaven still resides with those to whom we have just granted safe and honourable terms of peace. For my part, I had rather they should show themselves thus early, than that they should have waited a year longer; for our old impressions are not enough worn out as yet, to make us quite indifferent to the conduct of that haughty and restless neighbour." Mitchell MSS. On the 9th of September, the Duke of Bedford was appointed president of the council, and Lord Sandwich secretary of state; Lord Egmont was placed at the head of the admiralty, and Mr. George Grenville retained his situation of first lord of the treasury, and chancellor of the exchequer. Lord Chesterfield, in reference to this negotiation, says, in a letter to Mr. Stanhope, |