THE DUKE OF GRAFTON TO THE EARL OF CHATHAM.

MY LORD,

Grosvenor Square, October 4, 1766.

LORD NORTHUMBERLAND was yesterday created Duke of Northumberland, Earl of Percy, and Viscount Louvaine; the last of which Mr.Conway had the address to persuade him from adding as a second dukedom, as he before had that of getting him to change the title he first had asked of Duke Brabant. () The Earl of Cardigan preferred the temporary enjoyment of his post to the honour which has been the object of his life.

Lord Scarborough (2) was with me yesterday, in consequence of the letter I had written to him, and told me that he had considered the proposal of the post-office, which he begged to decline accepting, totally from family convenience ("), which would

() Agnes de Percy, second daughter of the third Lord William de Percy, was married to Joceline of Lovaine, son of Godfrey Barbutus, Duke of Lower Lorraine, and Count of Brabant.

(2) Richard Lumley Saunderson, fourth earl of Scarborough. During the preceding administration he had filled the office of cofferer to the King's household. He was also deputy earl marshal of England.

(3) This passage extinguishes for ever one of the numerous misrepresentations of Lord Chatham's conduct during the forming of this administration, contained in Almon's "Anecdotes," and since transferred into Thackeray's more voluminous History of the Earl of Chatham." Both these authors assert, that Lord Scarborough and Mr. Dowdeswell complained of the offensive manner in which they were applied to by Lord

not allow him to be as much in town as he should think it necessary to be if he was in the post-office, and which neither his own nor Lady Scarborough's health would admit of. He added, that his declining arose from no other motive; and if ever he did not approve of any system, he would lay down whatever employment he held, before he opposed it. Lord Monson's(') letter to me was very short, and is comprehended in these words, "that the advance of peerage was an honour he could accept by no means at this time."

I make no doubt that your Lordship is turning in your thoughts the Speech that will come most properly from the Throne in the present circumstances; and we trust that, in the hands of the lords now assembled at Bath (2) it is best placed. Give me leave to conclude with the sincerest wishes for

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Chatham, and consequently declined office: "to the first," say they, an abrupt message was sent, that he might have an office if he would;' to a second, that such an office was still vacant;' to a third, that he must take such an office or none. Of Mr. Almon's work Archdeacon Coxe, in his Memoirs of Lord Walpole, gives the following opinion: "I think it a duty I owe to the public, in mentioning this wretched compilation, to declare, that from the access I have had to the papers and documents of the times, I find it superficial and inaccurate, principally drawn from newspapers and party pamphlets, and interspersed, perhaps, with a few anecdotes communicated in desultory conversations by Earl Temple."

(1) John, second Lord Monson; in October 1765, appointed chief justice of his Majesty's forests south of Trent, which office he resigned in November 1766.

(2) Besides Lord Chatham, Lord Northington and Lord Camden were at this time at Bath.

your Lordship's health, and by assuring you of the real sentiments of esteem and respect with which I have the honour to be, my Lord,

Your Lordship's

most obedient

humble servant,

GRAFTON

THE EARL OF SHELBURNE TO THE EARL OF
CHATHAM.

MY DEAR LORD,

Bowood Park, Monday Morning.

[October 5, 1766.]

I CANNOT return to London from being so near your Lordship, without desiring to know how your journey agreed with you. I am come here on account of some alarm my servants were in for the safety of my house on account of the late riots; which I am glad to find not very well founded, or at least prevented by the activity of some country gentlemen. I wish I may find, on my return to London, that they have had the same success in other counties. Oxfordshire and Leicestershire are in a most disorderly state, and the applications to government have been so repeated, that the King has thought proper to order General Conway and me to write to the lordlieutenants of those counties where there have been disturbances, and where they have continued since the embargo, to desire them to enquire into the grounds of them, their nature and tendency;

and if they find it necessary in consequence to meet the sheriff, justices, or gentlemen in some central place, to consider of proper steps to be taken to warn the deluded, and to seize the persons of those that persist, that they may suffer the full punishment the law directs.

Since your Lordship left town, there has been nothing worthy your attention, except a silence on the part of Prussia. I wish we may hear something from thence soon, because the King and General Conway wish it; for myself, I own I was not surprised at Sir Andrew Mitchell's despatch, having heard so much of the King of Prussia's difficulty and diffidence; which last is not surprising with this country, both on account of what has happened personally in regard to him here, and the great fluctuation of administration for some time past.

Lord Grantham (1) and Mr. Robinson (2) have been in town, and desire their thanks to your Lordship, perfectly happy in the arrangement. Governor Lyttelton (3) is ready to do his utmost to

(1) See Vol. I. p. 96. His lordship was at this time one of the postmasters-general.

(2) The honourable Thomas Robinson, eldest son of Lord Grantham, at this time member for Christchurch. In November, he was appointed one of the lords of trade; in 1770, vice-chamberlain to the King; in 1771, ambassador to the court of Madrid; in 1781, first lord of the board of trade; and in 1782, secretary of state for the foreign department. He succeeded his father as second Lord Grantham in 1770, and died in 1786.

(3) William-Henry, sixth son of Sir Thomas, and brother of George first Lord Lyttelton. In 1755, he was appointed go

execute what the King desires in Portugal; and Sir Joseph Yorke still declining Spain, through a persuasion that he can regain Prince Lewis to favour, a civil note from whom he encloses to General Conway, I have sent to Lord Buckingham (') to come to town, and expect to find him on my return.

I shall be glad to have your Lordship's advice, at your leisure, in regard to a governor of Jamaica. It is most material that a fit person should go there, and soon; for the lieutenant-governor has to gain the favour of the people there. Your Lordship may, perhaps, at the same time, make this appointment assist other arrangements. I know Mr. Fitzherbert (2), at the board of trade, in general looks that way.

vernor of South Carolina; in 1760, governor of Jamaica; and in October 1766, envoy-extraordinary to the King of Portugal. In 1776, he was created Baron Westcote of Ballymore, in the county of Longford; and in 1794, a British peer by the title of Lord Lyttelton, which had become extinct in 1779 by the death of his nephew, the second-lord. He died in 1808.

(1) John Hobart, second Earl of Buckinghamshire. In 1762, he was appointed ambassador to the court of Petersburgh; and in 1776, lord-lieutenant of Ireland. He died in 1793.

(2) William Fitzherbert, of Tissington, esquire, at this time. member for Derby, and one of the lords of trade, which situation he continued to hold till January 1772, when he terminated his own existence; "owing," says Dr. Johnson, "to imaginary difficulties in his affairs, which, had he talked of with a friend, would soon have vanished." The whole tenor of his life is acknowledged to have been a constant series of public and private acts of beneficence. In parliament, he distinguished himself as the promoter of every measure tending to advance the internal prosperity of the community. In him originated