last two days.-Here I pause till the sky clears: at present, I know no more than the Pope of Rome what is doing.

Wednesday night, 5th.

This letter, which was to have speeded to you last night, could not get its complement, the political atmosphere being still overcast. Cardinal North was summoned to the Vatican on Monday,* where much entreaty was used to detach him from his new confederation, but in vain; and he was dismissed with a declaration, that any terms should be granted, except the disbursement of St. Peter's pence by the Head of a heretical faction. The Cardinal had another short audience last night, with as little effect. This morning, it is said, the young Cardinal I mentioned, and two others, have been closeted; and there ends the second part of this interlude, as far as I know. If things remain in suspense till Friday night, I shall still withhold this: you had better remain in negative than in positive uncertainty, unless your nephew gives you any hint. For my part, I do not choose, at such a crisis, to divulge our bickerings, though they can be no secret.

March 13th.

I began this letter, as you perceive, a fortnight ago; but we have remained in such confusion till yesterday, that truly I did not care to give you an account that might delight foreigners, and would give you an anxiety that I could neither remove, nor cared to explain. I shall now send you a few lines to-morrow, that will make you easy by announcing a settlement; but, as your nephew will set out for Florence next week, I will commit this to him; which will give you a fuller explanation, though it will be longer before you receive it.

upon private and public grounds, the most serious consideration. By far the greater number of the friends whom he consulted, advised him to accept the offer; but, af ter reflecting upon the opposition which he must experience from the two numerous and powerful parties at the head of which were Lord North and Mr. Fox, he was convinced there was no prospect of his obtaining that degree of support in Parliament, without which no Administration can be effective or beneficial to the country, and therefore felt himself under an imperious obligation to decline the offer." This offer was made on the 24th of February, and on the following day Mr. Dundas moved, that the House of Commons should adjourn to the 28th; the object of which motion, though not avowed, the Bishop states to have been, to give time to Mr. Pitt to consider his Majesty's offer; and it was carried by a majority of 49 to 37. The following passages from Mr. Wilberforce's Diary throw light on what took place in the interval: "Feb. 24th. Dined at Pitt's: heard of the very surprising proposition. 25th. Ministry still undecided. 28th. Ministers still unappointed. T. Townshend called, and in vain persuaded Pitt to take it. 29th. The chariot to Wimbledon: Pitt, &c., to dinner, and sleep. Nothing settled."

*March 3rd. This evening, or on Sunday evening, the King sent for Lord North, having previously seen Lord Guilford, and they parted on bad terms; Rex refusing to take Charles Fox, and North to give him up. 5th. King saw North a second time. Both continue stout. 12th. This day Lord North was commissioned, being sent for by the King, to desire the Duke of Portland to form a Ministry." Wilberforce's Diary.-ED.

VOL. II.-25

In short, whether Lord Shelburne retained his influence in the Closet, or endeavoured to preserve it; or whether mere aversion to Charles Fox and the Cavendishes, who govern the remnant of the Rockingham faction, was the cause; Lord Shelburne, the Chancellor, the Lord Advocate, and some of the old Bedford squadron, seconded the King's wishes to patch up a succedaneous Administration, though without Lord Shelburne for ostensible Minister. The first idea was to offer the Treasury to young Pitt, whose vanity was at first naturally staggered; but his discretion got the better, and he declined. It was then offered to Lord Gower, who had not resolution enough to accept. At last, Lord North, as I told you, was sent for, and it was proposed to him earnestly to resume his old rudder; but he avowed his new alliance with Fox, and proposed the Duke of Portland. This was absolutely rejected; and a resolution was declared of not appointing the Duke premier, though all the rest of his party might have places. This strange interval lasted from Sunday night to the Tuesday sevennight following. All men were in amazement, and nobody knew how this Gordian knot would be cut. I believe it was expected, perhaps hoped, that Mr. Fox and his associates would fly out into violence; which would revolt a very fluctuating House of Commons, in which the Torics, though they had followed Lord North, their old commander, against Lord Shelburne, might repent their desertion of prerogative, and leave the new allies, North and Fox, once more in a minority; but these were too cunning to precipitate their plan, and kept their temper; while the Crown received so many rebuffs, and found it impossible to form any other Ministry, that at last Lord North was again sent for, and ordered to form a new arrangement according to the system he had adopted and proposed; but was desired to make it broad enough, that there might not be another change soon.* Whether the latter part of the command will be easily executed, I don't know. The Coalition of North and Foxt has given extreme offence reciprocally to many of

*This was certainly an insincerity to lull the allies asleep, as appeared nine months afterwards; and, even so early as the following August, the King dropped hints of his meditating another change.

Mr. Eden, afterwards Lord Auckland, was supposed to have been the person who had the principal weight with Lord North upon this occasion. "He was called," says Bishop Tomline, "the father of the Coalition, and I myself heard Mr. Sheridan attribute the Coalition to him." Lady Charlotte Lindsay, the surviving daughter of Lord North, in a letter addressed to Lord Brougham in February 1839, and inserted in the first volume of his Lordship's Historical Sketches of Statesmen who flourished in the reign of George the Third, observes, in allusion to the much criticized Coalition, "The proverb says, Necessity acquaints us with strange bedfellows;" it is no less true, that dislike of a third party reconciles adversaries. My eldest brother was a Whig by nature, and an enthusiastic admirer of Mr. Fox; he, together with Mr. Adam and Mr. Eden, were, I believe, the chief promoters of the Coalition. My mother, I remember, was averse to it; not that she troubled her head with being a Tory or Whig, but she feared it would compromise her husband's political consistency." With many others, Sir Samuel Romilly appears to have been greatly disgusted at what had taken place: "I suppose," he says, in a letter

their friends, and I believe is not very popular in the country; nay, I question whether they are very sure of either House of Parliament. Of the Court they cannot be, which has shown so much aversion; and, as in March last, has affronted the Duke of Portland, like Lord Rockingham, by appointing another person to treat with him. Many expect the two allies will break again-I own I do not believe that: but as few, by the reduction of employments, and by the fulness of other places, whence the present occupiers will be removed, can be provided for, I foresee a pretty strong Opposition; and young Pitt, whose character is as yet little singed, and who has many Youths, of his own age and of parts,* attached to him, will be ready to head a new party. There are many other circumstances, too long to detail, that will favour my ideas. Your nephew will supply a verbal comment; but pray remember to send me this letter, and the rest of mine, by him.

The peace and the new arrangement are certainly fortunate. A duration of obstinacy against the latter might have endangered the

to his friend Roget, "all the gazettes have proclaimed to you the scandalous alliance between Fox and Lord North. It is not Fox alone, but all his party; so much, that it is no exaggeration to say, that, of all the public characters of this devoted country (Mr. Pitt only excepted,) there is not a man who has, or who deserves, the nation's confidence. But that even those men may not be judged unheard, the apology for their conduct which they offer, or rather upon which they insult the public, is this: They say, the great cause of enmity between them was the American war, which being removed, there remains no obstacle to their now becoming friends: that this country has long been shamefully rent with party feuds and animosities, to which it is high time to put an end, by uniting all the talents of the country in one Administration that their alliance implies no departure from their ancient principles; for though each party consents to act with men whom they formerly opposed, yet neither gives up any of their political sentiments: that an Administration formed of men holding contrary speculative opinions in politics, is no novelty in this country that even Lord Shelburne's Administration was one of this kind; the Chancellor and the Lord Advocate of Scotland being the warm Advocates of the Crown, and of the present Constitution; and the other Ministers being the zealous friends of the people, and the promoters of a reformation of the Constitution. These sophisms are not worth refuting." Life, vol. i. p. 269.-ED.

The Youths of his own age and of parts, here alluded to by Walpole, were Mr. Wilberforce, Mr. Henry Bankes, Mr. Pepper Arden, Mr. Eliot, and Mr. Dudley Ryder. With these young friends, Mr. Pitt, as is shown by Mr. Wilberforce's Diary, passed at this time most of his leisure hours: "March 31st. Pitt resigned to-day. Dined Pitt's: then Goostree's, where supped. April 3rd. Wimbledon, where Pitt, &c. dined and slept. Evening walk; bed a little past two. 4th. De licious day. Lounged morning at Wimbledon with friends, foining at night and run about the garden for an hour or two." "Little was it known," says Mr. Wilberforce's biographer, "by those who saw him only in his public course, that the stiffness of Mr. Pitt's ordinary manner could thus at times unbend, and wanton in these exuberant bursts of natural vivacity. The sports of the rigid Scipio and meditative Lælius, in their ungirded hours, were equalled by the foinings' of the garden at Wimbledon, where Pitt's overflowing spirits carried him to every height of jest. We found, one morning, the fruits of Pitt's earlier rising in the careful sowing of the garden-beds with the fragments of a dress-hat in which Ryder had overnight come down from the Opera.' It was in this varied and familiar intercourse that their mutual affection was matured." Life, vol. i. p. 27.-Ed.

former. Our situation, however, is far from admirable; and fallen we are very low in every respect-nay, have no symptoms of a nation returning to its senses, and thinking of repairing its errors and recovering its consideration. Mr. Fox, I am persuaded, had he full authority, is most capable of undertaking such a task; as, of all men living, Lord Shelburne has shown himself the most insufficient. Every day of his administration produced new proofs of his folly, duplicity, indiscretion, contradictions, and disregard of all principles. He was fallen into the lowest contempt, even before his power was shaken. He will have full time to reflect on his errors; and yet hitherto he has seemed insensible of them, and incapable of correcting them. The Duke of Portland is a cypher. Lord North has lately shown himself a dexterous politician for his own interests, though a most fatal Minister to us, and uncreditable to himself, and not very grateful to his Master. Still, such was our blindness, he was the most popular man in England, even after his fall; but that vision is dispelled, and he will be seen hereafter in his true colours, as a bad minister and a selfish man, who had abilities enough to have made a very different figure. Adieu!

March 18th.

P.S. I have been telling you what may be true; but at least it is not so yet. The Administration that was thought settled, is not. The Duke of Portland was invited, and refused in the same breath; that is, was ordered to send his list in writing, and would not: and, lest any part should be in the right, he and his new friend Lord North are not agreed on their list; and yet they and their Sovereign have squabbled about part of that unsettled list. He has insisted on keeping the Chancellor, they on dismissing him. Why? oh! thereby hangs a tale, more serious than all the rest. George the Fourth* has linked himself with Charles Fox. The Chancellor was consulted (by the King,) and is said to have expressed himself in terms that would be treason, if the present tense were the future ; but, that I may not be in the same præmunire, I leave to your nephew to expound the rest by word of mouth. I expect every minute to receive my packet. This letter, I hope, and he, will give you a clue that may make you understand my future despatches, which will be circumspect, not so much against home inspection as foreign. We are in such a distracted state, and may continue so, that I shall avoid touching on our confusions more than shall be too notorious to be concealed. As to who are or shall be Ministers, I care very little. All parties are confounded and intermixed, without being reconciled. My belief is, that new distractions will arise, and, after some scene of anarchy, a new æra. You may depend upon it, that I shall have nothing to do with it; and consequently shall know nothing but outlines. I withdraw myself

*The Prince of Wales. His connexion with Charles Fox made the King detest the latter, and was the principal cause of his dislike to the proposed Administration. That is, if the Prince were King.

more and more from the world, have few connexions left, and despise supremely such old simpletons as thrust themselves amongst generations two or three degree younger. If one outlives one's contemporaries, it is no reason for supposing one shall cut a new set of teeth.

LETTER CCCXCIX.

Thursday, April 3, 1783.

I MARK the very day of the week on which I begin my letter, because of late nothing has proved true; at least, not lasting for fourand-twenty hours. For these three weeks I have said to every body that called on me and told me news, "I beg your pardon, but I will not believe any thing you tell me: all I can do is to disbelieve." Well! at last there is an Administration-it has kissed hands; and therefore, were it to be destroyed to-morrow, it will have been. In a word, Lord North was sent for once more on Tuesday night, and was ordered to tell the Duke of Portland, that his Grace's arrangement would be accepted. Accordingly, the new Cabinet kissed hands yesterday: the Duke of Portland, as First Lord of the Treasury; Lord John Cavendish, Chancellor of the Exchequer ; Lord Stormont, President of the council; Lord North and Mr. Fox, Secretaries of State; Lord Carlisle, Privy Seal; Lord Keppel, First Lord of the Admiralty. This is all I know yet: for reports, even crediting, I should not repeat them till they have taken seisin; as, on a change of Administration, places, like insects, undergo a variety of transformations, at least in the eyes of rumour, before the metamorphoses are completed. As my letter will not leave London till to-morrow, I may be able to tell you more. I sent you a key by your nephew, which will unlock much of what is past.

In the mean time, let us talk of Cavalier Mozzi. I have received your letter, with his enclosed to Mr. Duane; which I sent immediately, and have seen the letter this morning. He is to appoint Mr. Sharpe and Lucas to meet him here, if they can, on Monday or Tuesday next; and when we have heard all they have to say, MrDuane and I shall talk it over together, and I hope give a more favourable decision than Cavalier Mozzi is willing to submit to. Since Mozzi has so long delayed coming, I see no occasion for it now. Indeed, the walls of Florence seems impassable, or your principie'd Earl* would not have been riveted there so long. How strange he is! neither parent nor children can draw him from that specific spot! But we are a lunatic nation!

They tell us that the Sicilian and Neapolitan tragedy has not been

* Earl Cowper, made Prince Nassau by the Emperor. He had lately sent his children to England to be educated, yet did not follow them himself.