Memoirs of the reign of King George the Third ... Edited, with notes, by Sir D. Le Marchant

Front matter

IHIB). ■■■,.. MEMOIRS OF THE REIGN OF KING GEORGE THE THIRD. By HORACE WALPOLE, YOUNGEST SON OP SIB ROBERT WALPOLE, EARL OP ORFORD. NOW FIRST PUBLISHED FROM THE ORIGINAL MSS. EDITED, WITH NOTES, By Sir DENIS LE MARCHANT, Bart. VOL. III. LONDON:- RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET, in (©rUtnarg to ftrr -JKajtjJtD. 1845. LONDON : Printed by S. & J. Bkntlby, Wilson, and Flkv, Bang-or House, Shoe Lane.

ADVERTISEMENT.

. Since the publication of the preceding volumes of this work, the Editor has been favoured with some important communications, which call for his public and most grateful acknowledgements. The Duke of Bedford kindly granted him the use of the valuable collection of letters at Woburn, left by his ancestor, John Duke of Bedford, from which he should have been less sparing in his ex tracts, had not the publication of the concluding volume of that nobleman's correspondence been expected in the course of the present year. The Editor's inquiries have, in many instances, been materially assisted by the Journal and Cor respondence of Sir Gilbert Elliot — the counsellor and intimate friend of Lord Bute, and one of the most accomplished statesmen of his day. His

Chapter I

A. D. PAGB 1767. Debates on East Indian Affairs . . . 1 Wilkes and the Duke of Grafton . . 5 March 16th. The Houses adjourn for the Holidays . 6 Expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain . . ib. March 28th. The Houses reassemble . . .11 Parliamentary Discussions . . . ib. May 1st. Conversation on Indian Affairs . .15 May 6th. Court of Proprietors vote themselves a Dividend . . . . . .21 Conduct of Mr. Townshend ... 23

Chapter II

1767- May 13th. Proposal to tax the Colonies . . 28 Passing of the Resolutions .... 37 Affairs of Lord Chatham . . . .41 May 18th. Violent Conduct of the Court of India Proprietors ..... 44 May 21st. Motion for Quebec Papers . . 45 State of Catholicism in England ... 47 May 26th. Motion on the Massachusets Act . . ib. Weakness of the Administration ... 49 June 1st. Grant moved to Prince Ferdinand . . 50 June 2nd. Victory of the Court in the House of Lords CONTENTS. VIII

Chapter III

A.D. PAGE 1767. Negotiations with the Bedford Party . . 58 July 2nd. Close of the Session . . .59 July 5th. Interview of Con way with the King . 61 July 15th. Treaty with Lord Rockingham . . 69 July 20th. Meeting at the Duke of Newcastle's . 79 July 22nd. Interview of Lord Rockingham the King . . . • • .83

Chapter IV

1767. Attempt to procure an Earldom for Lord Holland . 94 July 28th. Walpole sups with the Duke of Grafton . 96 Sept. 4th. Death of Charles Townshend . . 99 Sept. 1 7th. Death of the Comte de Guerchy . .102 Sept. 17th. Death of the Duke of York . . 103 Characters of the Royal Dukes . . .105 French Travellers in England and Ireland . 107 Generosity of Conway . . . .108 Conduct of Lord Townshend in Ireland . . 109 Nov. 24th. Meeting of Parliament . . .112 Debate on the Address . . . .113 Nov. 29th. Negotiation with the Bedford Party .117

Chapter V

1767. Affair of Colonel Brereton with the Duke of Grafton 132 Tax on Irish Absentees . . . .133 Character of Lord Weymouth . . .135 Attempted Treaty with Mr. Grenville . . 136 Dec. 18th Success of the Negotiation with the Bedfords ...... 140 Dec. 21st. The Houses adjourn . . .141 1768. Case of the Duke of Portland . . . CONTENTS. ix An- PAGE 1768. Jan. 14th. Dunning made Solicitor-General . 146 Jan. 20th. Resignation of Conway . . . 149 Affair of Lord Bottetort . . . .151 Corruption of the Corporation of Oxford . .153 Bill for Septennial Parliaments in Ireland . 155 Feb. 1st. Death of Sir Robert Rich . . .156 Beckford's Bribery Bill . . . .157 Feb. 17th. Bill to restrain the Recovery of Crown Lands ...... 161 Dissolution of Parliament . . . 163

Chapter VI

1 768. On the Literature of the Early Part of the Reign of George the Third . . . .164

Chapter VII

1768. Walpole determines to resume his Memoirs . . 180 Audacity of Wilkes . . . .182 March 28th. Beginning of the Middlesex Election 186 Riots during the polling . . . .187 April 20th. Wilkes surrenders to the King's Bench 194 The General Elections . . . .197 Plan for the Expulsion of Wilkes . . 200 Meeting of Parliament . . . 203 Riots before the King's Bench . . 204 May 11th. Petition of the Sailors to Parliament . 206 May 12th. Mark of Distinction to Aldermen Harley 207 Dehate on Wilkes in the Commons . . .216 French Designs on Corsica • . . 217 Heroism of a Sailor . . . ,,... .219 June 8th. Renewal of Wilkes's Outlawry . . 223 June 1 8th. Sentence of Wilkes for the North Briton and the " Essay on Woman "... 228 Riots at Boston . . • • .231 vol. hi. * X CONTENTS.

Chapter VIII

A.D. PAGE 1768. August 2nd. Lord Bute leaves England for the Continent ...... 232 August 3rd. Death of Archbishop Seeker . 233 August 9th. Trial of a Soldier for Murder . . 235 Arrival of Christian the Seventh . . ib. Removal of Amherst from Virginia . . . 239 Contemplated Disgrace of Lord Shelburne . . 245 Resignation of Lord Chatham . . . 247 Lord Rochford made Secretary of State . . 248 Privy Seal given to Lord Bristol . . . 250 State of the Country . . . .253 Nov. 8th. Meeting of Parliament . . . 255 Meditated Expulsion of Wilkes . . . 256 Nov. 14th. Sir Joseph Mawbey presents a Petition from him ...... 260

Chapter IX

1768. War between Russia and Turkey . . . 262 The King of France's new Mistress . . 264 Nov. 1 7th. Death of the Duke of Newcastle . .265 Affairs of Corsica .... ib. Quarrel between the Duke of Grafton and Lord Hertford ...... 267 Nov. 23rd. Debates on Wilkes's Case . . 271 Ayliffe committed to Newgate . . .279 Dec. 8th. Riots at the Middlesex Election 283 Characters of Townshend and Sawbridge . 284 Character of Colonel Onslow . . . 280 Dec. 14th. Election of Serjeant Glynn . 289 Resolutions on American Affairs . . . ib. The Cumberland Election .... 290 Wilkes demands to be heard at the Bar of the House of Lords ...... CONTENTS. XI

Chapter X. A

J). PAGE 1769. Jan. 2nd. Wilkes chosen Alderman . . . 297 Jan. 13th. East India House rejects the Government Proposition . . . ib. Jan. 16th. Argument on Wilkes's Writ of Error . 298 Douglas Peerage Claim . . _. . 299 Trial of Macquirk and Balf . . . .307 Discussions concerning Wilkes . . . 310 Jan 25th. Resolutions on America . . .313 Jan. 27th. Wilkes appears before the House of Commons . . . . . .314 Feb. 2nd. Censure on him passed . . . 325 His Expulsion carried . . . .327 Republican Party in England . . . 331 Mr. Grenville's State of the Nation . . 333 Burke's Reply . . . . .334

CHAPTER XL

1769. American Affairs .... 336 F ' 16th. Wilkes is re-elected . . .337 Feb. 17th. His second Expulsion . . . ib. Feb. 21st. Meeting at the London Tavern . . 339 Feb. 24th. Defeat of the Ministry . . 340 Feb. 27th. Agreement with the East India Company . 341 Feb. 28th. Message on the King's Debts . . 343 March 16th. Third Election and Expulsion of Wilkes 347 Loyal Demonstration ..... 349 Address of the Merchants of London . . 350 Riots . . • . . .351 Lutterell appears as Caudidate for Middlesex . 353 April 12th. The Election ■ . . . ib. Lutterell declared duly returned . . . 357 April 27th. Meeting at Mile End . . .361 CONTENTS. XII A.D. PAGE 1769. May 8th. Lutterell's seat confirmed . . 362 Close of the Session . 865 May 24th. Petition of the Freeholders presented to the King -.ib.

Chapter XII

1769. Election of Pope Ganganelli . . • 366 Quarrel between the French and Russian Ambassadors 368 Agitation after the Rising of Parliament . . 372 Lord Chatham appears at the King's Levee . • 373 State of the Country . . . .375 Home's Libel on Onslow . . . .377 Aspersions on Lord Holland . . . 379 Dr. Musgrave's Pretended Discovery ,. . 384 Russian Project of attacking Constantinople . 385 Conquest of Corsica . . . .386 Petitions against the Parliament . . . 389 Disturbance at the Execution of two Rioters . . 394 Irish Affairs . . . . 396 Prosecution of Vaughan . . . 399 Remonstrance of Junius to the King . . 402 Story of the Duke of Gloucester and Maria Walpole . KING GEOEGE THE THIED.

Chapter I

Debates on East Indian Affairs. — Wilkes and the Duke of Grafton. — Expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain. — Parliamentary Discussions. — Attempts to construct a new Administration in Prospective. — The Court of Proprietors vote themselves a Dividend in spite of the Ministry. — Extraordinary Conduct of Townshend in the House of Commons. 1767. I have said that the Opposition, perceiving how much the tide ran against them, determined to attempt putting an end to the East Indian business the moment the examination was closed ; a weak and silly plan, that betrayed a jealousy of their own cause. Sir William Meredith fixed on the 14th for making that attempt. Lord Bute had been seriously alarmed, and he and the Duke of Grafton exerted themselves to defeat the Opposition. Beckford observed that the evidence had proved all he had asserted, and said he intended to make some motions VOL III. b [1767. in consequence, but the examination had been so voluminous, he had not had time to digest his matter.

Sir William Meredith said, he doubted whether it was fit to proceed at all further or not : that it had been Beckford's own fault if the examination had been voluminous. His questions to the evidences had been unjust, and would not have been admitted in a court of justice. It were better to stop, if violence alone was to be the consequence. The Ministers in the Treasury ought to make the motions, if any were proper ; but they did not seem to be trusted in this question. The Company would not make proposals while a doubt subsisted of their having any property in the territorial acquisitions. He did not know what motion to make ; he thought that the Speaker should leave the chair. Townshend and Conway spoke for allowing more time ; Grenville for going into the Committee to see if any one had any proposal to make.

Beckford declared he would never propose any question of forfeiture. Norton, in a very indefinite speech, said, if the Company had exceeded their charter, the Crown could call them to account. That the acquisitions were not conquest, because the King was not at war with the Mogul : they seemed to be only plunder. It seemed to be difficult to know judicially what to do with those acquisitions. They ought to be restored, but nobody wished to see that. The Attorney-General desired Norton to give his opinion how to try the case. He refused, saying, "It will be KING GEORGE 111. 3 alleged that a prerogative lawyer has pointed out to the Crown a way of getting possession." The Attorney-General showed that, by the nature of a process in the courts of law, it was impossible for the King to recover his right by law, supposing the territory were his by his prerogative, or by the forfeiture of the Company.

There must be an information of intrusion : a jury must be chosen where the lands lie, and yet where there is no sheriff. The sheriff must deliver the profits ; must appoint a receiver for the three provinces, who must give security for two years in a court of law to examine the necessary witnesses. The court would not order possession to be delivered. Then there must be a sequestration of the Company's effects. Having thus exposed with much humour the fruit lessness of a legal suit, he said if nobody else would, he would move for a bill to prevent the Company from making a dividend beyond such a sum without consent of Parliament. It was necessary to frighten them : he would not violate their charter, but as he thought they had no right to their territorial revenues, he would take the half of them.

Wedder burn replied, that an action might lie against the Company as a corporation : all he desired was to ascertain the right; the Legislature would settle the rest. Grenville declaimed against any violence, and said with passion, the view was not to vest money in the public, but in the Crown ; and a pro fuse Minister had been found who wanted to give B [1767. 4 MEMOIRS OF THE REIGN OF four millions to the King, a year before the general election. He should advise to take this money by taxation. Conway said boldly, he should insist on security that this money, if taken, should be vested in the public, not in the Crown. Taxation was like Mr. Grenville's Morocco politics. Burke pleaded that in the last charter the Crown had granted the Company privileges as indemnification : what could that mean but territory, revenue, and commerce?

Yet he owned there was a political reserve in the charters. The debate lasted till one in the morning when the Opposition were beaten by 213 to 157. After the division I told the Duke of Richmond that, notwithstanding our victory, I was as ready as ever to unite Conway and his Grace's friends on the American affairs. The King was informed of Gren ville's apprehensions that the money to be taken from the Company was designed for his Majesty, and highly resented the insinuation — perhaps resent ed Grenville's dislike of such a disposition. There wanted no new aggravation of Grenville's offences. His tediousness in the closet had left a lasting im pression; and an ill-judged obstinacy of economy in an article of no great moment, but which ivas ever before the King's eyes, could not be forgotten.

When his Majesty took in a portion of the Green Park to form a new garden for Buckingham House, the fields on the opposite side of the road were to be sold ; the price twenty thousand pounds. This sum Grenville refused to issue from the Treasury. The 1767.] KING GEORGE III. 5 ground was sold to builders, and a new row of houses, each of which overlooked the King in his private walks, was erected to his great annoyance. Wilkes had come over the last year, during the recess of Parliament, to try to obtain his pardon, and by the Duke of Grafton's desire wrote a very submissive letter to his Grace, to be shown to the King. The Duke then told him his pardon could not be obtained without the concurrence of Lord Chatham, and wished him to write to the latter too. Wilkes, who had been abandoned and stigmatized by Lord Chatham, though formerly intimate with and flattered by him, had too much spirit to throw himself at Chatham's feet, and refused : but, irritated at his disappointment, he published an exaggerated account of that transaction, with unjust severity on the Duke1, — and returned to Paris.

His Grace, 1 The pamphlet alluded to was intituled " A Letter to his Grace the Duke of Grafton, First Commissioner of his Majesty's Treasury." Editions were printed at London, Paris, and Berlin. It bears with less severity on the Duke than on Lord Chatham, who is held up to public ridicule and scorn as an apostate to the cause of liberty, and " the abject crouching deputy of the proud Scot," whom he is represented as having previously persecuted and insulted. This virulent and tedious invective concludes thus : — " But I have done with Lord Chatham ; I leave him to the poor consolation of a place, a pension, and a peerage, for which he has sold the confidence of a great nation. Pity shall find and weep over him." It is altogether a poor performance. The only part now of any interest, is the narrative it contains of Wilkes's arrest and examination for the publication of the North Briton, in 1763. — (Almon's Life of Wilkes, vol. iii. p. 184. — Biographical Anecdotes, vol. i. p. 6.) — E. [1767.

MEMOIRS OF THE REIGN OF Lord Rockingham, and others of that connexion, had yearly contributed the sum of 1000*?. or 1100J. to his support. Mr. Fitzherbert collected their donations. It was now the season of collection. In defiance of the Duke, Wilkes sent over a new abusive pamphlet against the Administration. March 16th. — The Houses adjourned for .the holidays. At this period happened the sudden and total expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain, — a measure so unexpected by them, that they were made prisoners in their convents throughout the kingdom, without having had the least intimation of their intended ruin ; a moment of history that will ever be re markable. The order, renowned for their subtlety and art, dreaded for the empire they had obtained over the consciences of princes and private persons, and seated in the most bigoted country upon earth, had neither sagacity to surmise their impending destruction, nor one penitent so weak and devout as to give them intelligence of what, for a whole year, was in agitation against them.

That fabric of human policy and wickedness fell to the ground in an instant. Not a murmur was heard against the rigour of the sentence, though they were conducted to the sea-coasts like exiled malefactors, thrust into ships, and sent like cargoes of damaged goods to their proprietor, the Pope. Clement XIII. though an enthusiast, could not receive them. They were at last dispatched to Corsica, one and all, after 1767.] KING GEORGE 111. 7 being tossed about at sea for some months,1 stowed in the narrow compass of a few vessels, — a fate so severe, that the greatest enemy of Catholic imposition must commiserate the sufferers. However detestable the maxims of the society, however criminal some of the order might have been, the greater part were undoubtedly innocent — many, perhaps, conscientious men ; who, trusting to the establishment and laws of the country, and believing the doctrines they had been taught, had entered into religion.

Let the impartial mind weigh the weight of the calamity that fell like thunder on those poor men ! Torn from the tranquillity of their convents ; too old or too ignorant to turn to new professions; delivered up to an element they were totally unaccustomed to, sickening with the natural effect of the waves, and with want of room and air ; banished for ever from their country, relations, and friends ; uncertain to what clime they were driven ; finding ; with difficulty one that would receive them, and that one in a state of war, and the most unwholesome spot in Europe ; — what a state of lamentation and hopeless misery ! What, too, must the parents and friends of those unhappy men have felt ? Could no middle term be found ? What a horrible post is that of a minister, when the benefit or policy of 1 Walpole must have meant weeks.

The Pope declined re ceiving them on account of the expenses attending the support of so large a body. Subsequently the miserable pittance of a franc per diem was assigned to each of them — E. [1767. 8 MEMOIRS OF THE REIGN OF the State calls for such sacrifices ! No doubt was entertained but that the Court of Madrid had dis covered that the Jesuits had been the incendiaries of the late insurrection there ; and its ministers seemed to have learnt and imbibed the deep secrecy and resolute vigour of the Count D'Ocyras, the prime minister of Portugal, the profoundest and most desperate politician of the age. From M. de Mello, the Portuguese minister in England,1 I received this account of the springs that first gave birth to that revolution. When D'Ocyras became all-powerful at Lisbon, he found the Portuguese settlements in America, that bordered on the French, extremely neglected.

Apprehending a rupture with France from that quarter, he sent his own brother to examine the Portuguese possessions. At the same period Ferdinand's Queen, who held the reins of the Spanish monarchy during the incapacity of her husband, had made a treaty with Portugal for an exchange of lands, in which Spain would have been gainer ; intending to involve the Court of Lisbon in a quarrel with the Jesuits of Paraguay, part of which country was to be ceded to the Portuguese. 1 M de Mello afterwards became Minister of Marine in Portu gal, under the Marquis of Pombal, and held that post several years with great reputation. His ability and experience in business, obliged the Court to retain him in the Government after the disgrace of Pombal, notwithstanding his connexions with that statesman, and the known liberality of his opinions. — (Dispatch from Mr. Walpole, minister at Lisbon, in Smith's Life of Pombal, vol. ii. p. 301.)— E. 1767.

KING GEORGE III. 9 The event happened as she had foreseen : the Jesuits refused the exchange ; and imputing the machination to D'Ocyras, endeavoured to excite the confessors of both Kings and Queens to attempt the ruin of that minister.1 This step drew upon them the wrath 1 The exchange to which Walpole refers was not accomplished without serious difficulty, the Indian Militia raised by the Jesuits having long successfully resisted the Spanish and Portuguese forces employed to carry the treaty into effect. The transaction has generally been ascribed to the intrigues of the Dominicans, the ancient enemies of the Jesuits, and their competitors for spiritual dominion in the New World. The conspiracy of Tavora quickly followed, and furnished Pombal with the ostensible pretext he so ardently desired, for the expulsion of the order from Portugal (in 1759), and it also shook their influence throughout Europe.

They lingered on in France, proscribed by the Parliaments, and odious to the great majority of the people, until 1764, when the edict against them was wrung from Louis XV. by the importu nities of Choiseul. The same minister has been supposed to have determined the Court of Spain to pursue a similar course; and no doubt his influence and that of his master were used for that purpose. But the real author of the bold and statesmanlike measure described in the text, was Don Pedro D'Aranda, the Cap tain-General, and President of the Council of Castile. During a lengthened absence from Spain, he had formed in the society of Montesquieu, D'Alembert, and Diderot, as well as of Frederic the Great, plans of national reform, which he knew to be incom patible with the existence of the Jesuits ; and from the moment of his accession to power he seems to have been bent on their de struction.

His manly and persuasive eloquence, a mind full of resources, and a character indomitably resolute, gained him an ex traordinary sway over the divided councils of an ignorant and imbecile Court The Jesuits had irritated Charles by their in trigues, both at Rome and Madrid, during the reign of his prede cessor. Their interference with the various departments of the State had gradually identified them, in the opinion of the people, [1767. 10 MEMOIRS OF THE REIGN OF of that vindictive man, who, possessing all the spirit of intrigue which seemed to have deserted the fathers, never stopped till he had accomplished the destruction of the order. Had D'Ocyras 1 been a Jesuit instead of a statesman, the Jesuits might have subsisted till the Roman Church itself shall fall like other structures of human invention.

So with the grievous abuses under which the country suffered, and all the rising talent of Spain was secretly opposed to them. D'Aranda boldly arraigned them as the instigators of the insurrection against Squillaci, which, for some hours, had placed the royal family and the capital at the mercy of the mob. He availed himself of the influence he had acquired by quelling that insurrection to press the charge with his characteristic impetuosity. The alarm of the King, and the confidence of the accuser, supplied the deficiency of conclusive proofs, and D'Aranda prevailed. No sooner was the edict obtained, than it appeared that the most minute arrangements had been made throughout Spain for its immediate execution by Campomanes, then a young man, and lately appointed to the ministry ; and the skill with which this was accomplished is still cited by the native historians as the master piece of that statesman, high as his reputation deservedly stands in his own country as an economist, a writer, and a minister.

See the Supplementary Chapter by Muriel to the French trans lation of Coxe's History of the Spanish Bourbons, vol. v. p. 65 ; one of the most valuable of that work. — E. 1 Sebastian Joseph de Carvalho a Mello Count D'Ocyras, and Marquis of Pombal, was born in 1699, and died in 1782, in his 83rd year. He had been Minister and master of Portugal for twenty-seven years — a period rendered interesting by his vigorous efforts for the regeneration of his country. This was an undertaking, however, beyond the power of any individual, however eminent or able, to accomplish ; and the harsh and often unprincipled means he employed to attain his ends made his reforms odious to a large portion of the community, and precipitated their decline from the moment that he had fallen into disgrace. — E. 1767.]

KING GEORGE III. 11 true it is, what I have more than once remarked in these pages, that great benefits are seldom conferred on mankind by good men. It is when the interests and passions of ambition, villany, and desperation clash, that some general advantage is struck out. On the 28th, when the Houses re-assembled, no thing was ready for their discussion. The Duke of Grafton had passed the holidays at Newmarket, and when he returned, could not obtain admission to Lord Chatham. The Directors of the East India Company, alarmed at the strength of the evidence against them, had determined to make a compromise or bargain with the Government ; and, fearing Lord Chatham would reject their proposal, had sent severally round to the members of the Cabinet, to desire to treat. At a Council held the evening before the meeting of the Parliament, Conway brought them all over to his opinion for a treaty; and he, with the Duke of Grafton, and Charles Townshend, were commissioned by the rest to negotiate.

The last wTas grown a great advocate for the Company, and said, that now, on the death of his wife's mother,1 the Duchess of Argyle, he himself was become a considerable proprietor of India stock — all the truth was, that he intended to be so ; the Duchess had not had a shilling in that fund. i Jane Warburton, widow of John Duke of Argyle, and mother of Caroline Countess Dowager of Dalkeith, who had married for her second husband Charles Townshend, and inherited a great fortune on her mother's death. [1767. MEMOIRS OF THE REIGN OF He had acted with the same lightness when, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, he had been to open the Budget before the holidays : he had caused Onslow to make his excuse on pretence of illness, and then appeared there walking about the House. Two days after he did open it — but of that more hereafter, when I come to speak of his proposed taxes.

March 29th was the day appointed at the desire of the Opposition for the call of the House, and Conway had proposed they should go on the India business on that day, but Grenville had said he would insist on the House being called over. They now would have put off the call for a week to keep the members of their party in town, but Conway fixed them to their first proposal, and on a division carried it by a majority of fifty. Rigby then said, " We will put it off for a fortnight;" " No," said Conway, "/ will do that, for the Indian business is in a more promising way than ever." Grenville was thunderstruck : Con way's spirits showed how much he was pleased with his triumph — Grenville being the only man who had ever inspired him with animosity. The next morning he came to me early, and said, the Duke of Grafton had told him thino-s could not go on as they were; that Lord Chatham must either come forth, or quit; and he thouo-ht would do the latter.

Conway therefore desired I would go to the Duke of Richmond, and say that I had persuaded him to let me come to his Grace 1767.] 13 KING GEORGE III. and tell him that if he and his friends would not join Grenville, he (Conway) would assist them in a new Administration, but would take no civil place under any ; should like to be Secretary at War, and Minister of the House of Commons, if Townshend had his wish and was created a peer. His idea was, that he might be Minister for the Military Depart ment, if Lor1 Granby could be removed. I said, all this was idle ; that neither the King nor the House of Commons would come into it. That if he would not be First Minister, Grenville must. That he (Conway) must take the Treasury, or nothing would last ; Lord Rockingham's Admin istration had not lasted a year, though with the assistance of the Duke of Grafton and his friends, and with the hopes of acquiring Lord Chatham ; now would have neither of them.