unless you approve of our not meeting; and then I can contrive to lay the whole before George Grenville. I hate this mystery; 'tis their fault. (1)

(1) The following is Lord Waldegrave's own account of his share in this negotiation: Murray and Sir Thomas Robinson were at this time the only leading members in the House of Commons, in whom the Duke of Newcastle had a thorough confidence; but the one wanted abilities, the other wanted spirit; and though the administration had in every division a very great majority, many of their steadiest voters were laughers at least, if not encouragers, on the other side of the question. It therefore became necessary that Pitt and Fox should be disunited; one of them must be treated with, and Fox was first applied to, as being thought more practicable, less disagreeable to the King, and more a man of business. As Fox was apt to be warm, and the Duke as apt to be shuffling, it seemed necessary that some neutral person should negotiate between them, and his Majesty thought proper to employ me on this occasion, because I belonged to neither of them, but was a well-wisher to both.

"That the progress of this amicable treaty might not be interrupted by a fresh quarrel, I persuaded them to defer their meeting till they had settled preliminaries, and clearly understood each other's meaning. Fox very readily gave me his demands in writing, which I reported to the King, and entered into a more minute explanation with the Duke of Newcastle, who made some objections, and proposed some alterations, but consented to most of the material articles. There would have been many more difficulties, if I had not began by terrifying his Grace with a melancholy representation of the fatal consequences of Fox's uniting with Pitt in open opposition: how he would be exposed to all the virulence of abusive oratory; how his leaders in the House of Commons would be treated with contempt; and how his numerous parliamentary forces, having learned to despise their generals, would soon become mutinous and ungovernable. On the other hand I assured Fox, that the King had, if possible, still less inclination to make him a minister than the Duke of Newcastle himself. I therefore ad

REMARKS ON THE PRECEDING CORRESPONDENCE. [In the hand-writing of Mr. Pitt.]

IF Mr. Fox should be treated with by the Duke of Newcastle, what must be our situation? He must either close with the offers made him, to our prejudice, or demand that satisfaction should be made to us; that is, in effect, treat for us. If he takes the first part, that of dropping us; possessed as he is of the Duke, pushed and supported by Lord Granville, reconciled with and assisted by Stone, favoured by Lady Yarmouth, and liked and trusted by the King, we shall be left without a remedy. If he takes the other honourable part, that of treating for us; we are thereby reduced to a very inferior situation in point of figure, and entangled inextricably by such an obligation (no matter for the motives of his seeming generosity) not only for

vised him as a friend, to rest satisfied with a moderate share of power, and to wait for a more favourable opportunity, unless he had absolutely determined to join Pitt, set the nation in a flame, and take the closet by storm. All natural difficulties being at last removed, I proposed an interview, which produced the following agreement: that Fox should be called up to the cabinet council; that employments should be given to some of his friends, who were not provided for; and that others, who had places already, should be removed to higher stations." Memoirs, p. 32.

the present, but embarked in his bottom, in all appearance, for times to come. (1)

Is not some remedy to be thought of against so disadvantageous, mortifying, and dangerous a situation ? May not that remedy be to resolve to talk for ourselves, and endeavour to bring things to some explanation, before the above-mentioned conjuncture is actually come upon us? Is not the sort of overture, made through Mr. Walpole (2), a

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(1) May 9, 1755. Mr. Pitt came to Lord Hillsborough's, where was Mr. Fox, who, stepping aside, and Mr. Pitt thinking, he was gone, the latter declared to Lord Hillsborough, that all connection between him and Mr. Fox was over that the ground was altered · that Fox was of the cabinet and regent that he would be second to nobody, &c. Mr. Fox rejoining the company, Mr. Pitt, being heated, said the same and more to him; that if Fox succeeded, and so made way for him, he would not accept the seals of secretary from him, for that would be owning an obligation and superiority, which he would never acknowledge: he would owe nothing but to himself. Mr. Fox asked him, what would put them upon the same ground? to which Pitt replied, a winter in the cabinet, and a summer's regency. Pitt talked the same over again to Lord Hillsborough, who endeavoured to soften matters; but Pitt was unalterable, and desired him, as a friend, to take an opportunity of telling Mr. Fox that he wished there might be no further conversation between them on the subject; that he esteemed Mr. Fox, but that all connection with him was at an end.". Dodington's Diary, p. 284.

(2) "At one period the two rival orators seem to have arranged their respective pretensions : Mr. Fox was to be placed at the head of the treasury, and Mr. Pitt to have the seals of secretary of state. But this agreement was of short duration. Mr. Pitt was incensed, because his rival was admitted into the cabinet, and appointed one of the lords of the regency. Mr. Walpole was deeply concerned at this fatal struggle between two

sufficient and natural foundation for some conversation, in which I might avail myself of the dispositions intimated in my favour? - take them for sincere and real, and ground on them a desire that, at least, my state with the King might be brought to an explicit point?-that I could no longer remain in the dark, concerning a thing upon which all my conduct ought in reason to turn?-that, if I am so unhappy as to lie under his Majesty's irremovable displeasure, and an unalterable determination, in consequence of it, that I am at no time and in no exigency, to be suffered to have the honour to be admitted to the closet; that, at least, I might humbly hope to hear the grounds of his Majesty's so deep rooted aversion?-whether it grows out of an opinion that

persons with whom he was equally connected. He considered Mr. Pitt as the only person who, from his independent spirit and energy of character, was capable of over-ruling the wavering councils of a divided cabinet; and with this prepossession he eagerly accepted a commission from the Duke of Newcastle, to effect an accommodation with Mr. Pitt, and endeavoured to soothe his inflexible spirit, by apologising for the Duke's conduct, and declaring in his name that the utmost endeavours had been used to gratify his wishes. Mr. Pitt received the overtures with complacency; but demanded, as a proof of the Duke's sincerity, that the proscription which excluded him from the cabinet should be removed, and a promise obtained from the King of the seals in case of a vacancy. Mr. Walpole approved these proposals; but the Duke of Newcastle, with his usual versatility, expressed his resentment against Mr. Walpole for exceeding his commission, and agreeing to terms which he was neither willing nor able to grant.” - Coxe's Lord Walpole, vol. ii. p. 405.

my services would be useless there, in which his Majesty would but do me right; or from impressions on the Royal mind, infinitely more mortifying to me, namely, that I am not worthy to be trusted there, in which I am willing to flatter myself his Majesty would have been misled to do me some wrong. Whichever the fatal cause of my depression may be, is it not reasonable, just, and necessary, that I should know it, in order that I may no longer look towards impossible things, perhaps continue to do injustice in my thoughts to endeavours in my favour that may have been sincere though fruitless, and waste my life under a delusion that must prove fatal to the little credit I may still be fortunate enough to have to manage with the world?

If I have flattered myself in vain with the hopes the Royal mind must relent, when the hard, irrevocable decree, together with the grounds of it is known to me, I may take my final part as reason will warrant, according to the necessity imposed on me. I shall then be enabled, upon certainty and knowledge, to determine either for acquiescence as I am, or resistance of what I hope I don't deserve, or for a retreat from both.