  We have seen that Pitt was to proceed to Hagley after leaving Tunbridge Wells in September 1753. From Hagley he sent a letter to Newcastle, which it must have cost him something to write. 'Some circumstances of my brother's transactions at Old Sarum render me uneasy at depending for my seat in next Parliament on that place. So I take the liberty to recur once more for your Grace's protection and friendship to provide for my election elsewhere.'[226] Newcastle seems at once to have offered his borough of Aldborough, and Pitt 'can never express himself sufficiently grateful for all your favours.'[227] From Hagley (October 1753) he proceeded to Bath for a fresh course, and seems to have remained there a helpless cripple for no less than seven months, though he was in London for a debate in November. Never was illness so untimely, as events of vital importance to him were about to take place. For on March 6, 1754, Pelham died, and all was confusion. 'Now I shall have no more peace,' said the shrewd old King. 'I never saw the King under such deep concern since the Queen's death,' wrote Hardwicke. And indeed the situation was full of alarming possibilities. For Pelham had become the unobtrusive but indispensable man, like the mediocre and forgotten Liverpool, who kept the balance between fierce rivalries and discordant opinions for fifteen years. There seems no great complication in Pelham's character. He was a Whig politician, trained under Walpole, but also under an intolerable brother who exercised the utmost prerogative of his birthright. His portrait, by Hoare, indicates something catlike, and he had much of feline caution and timidity. But among the politicians of that day he seems to have been comparatively simple and direct; and no man of his day was so fit for the position of Prime Minister in view of his own qualifications, and the conditions of the office at that time. He was indeed an inferior Walpole. He seems moreover to have been almost devoid of personal ambition; the highest places were thrust on him without his seeking them. At the fall of Walpole, in spite of Walpole's urgent instances that he should accept the Chancellorship of the Exchequer, which besides the eminence of the office would have given him the succession to Lord Wilmington, he insisted on remaining Paymaster, a post which, as we have seen, even without the recognised perquisites, had great material attractions, and which with them was capable of enchaining so powerful a parliamentarian as Fox. On the death of Wilmington, by Walpole's influence, he obtained the highest place; though Walpole had not merely to inspire the King, but to overcome Pelham's reluctance. We may imagine that Walpole would urge on his Sovereign that Pelham was the only House of Commons man available, that he was eminently safe, that he represented Newcastle's parliamentary influence, and that Newcastle represented Hardwicke, who embodied the brains of the Cabinet; for those of Carteret were too dangerous to trust. As First Minister Pelham had many difficulties to contend with, but not greater than those which always must encompass that position. There was the King, with violent prejudices and a Hanoverian policy, neither of which he shared. Then there was his brother, who regarded himself as at least his junior's equal, and whose petulance, jealousy, and suspicion had to be kept in a constant state of arduous appeasement. Thirdly, there was Pitt, whom the King could not do with and Pelham could not do without; an element of incalculable explosion which anything might ignite. He seems to have steered his course somewhat passively through these complications; content so long as he could ward off domestic catastrophe, and prevent war with its consequent expenditure; though the fates in neither case were propitious. His only real conviction indeed was for peace and economy; for the heritage of Walpole's policy had devolved upon him, without Walpole's character and ability. Three years before the end, as we have seen, he had sickened of his task and of his helplessness amid the jarring elements of discord, but he had not been permitted to retire. He was indeed the necessary man; a good debater, a good administrator, a minister with a conscience for the public, a leader or a figurehead with Newcastle's parliamentary power behind him, a tactician who managed to keep Pitt at bay, dangerous but muzzled. Men of this stamp are kept in harness to the end. He died on March 6, and the news found Pitt, on March 7, crippled and immovable at Bath. His feet were impotent with gout, but his brain and hands were evidently unaffected. He at once despatched a brief note of condolence to Newcastle, 'whose grief must be inconsolable as its cause is irreparable. You have a great occasion for all your strength of mind to exert itself. Exercise it for the sake of your master and your country, and may all good men support you. I have the gout in both feet and am totally unable to travel.'[228] To Lyttelton and the Grenvilles he wrote on the same day at length 'the breaking of first thoughts to be confined to you four,'[229] enclosed in a covering letter to Temple, saying that he was worn down with pain, and incapable of motion. But he was none the less vigilant with regard to the least ripple on the surface of politics, 'I heard some time since that the Princess of Wales inquired after my health: an honour which I received with much pleasure, as not void, perhaps of some meaning.'[230] Newcastle at once answered Pitt's note of condolence, for we find Pitt acknowledging the reply on March 11, and mentioning a letter written to him by Hardwicke, under Newcastle's authority, 'with regard to some things in deliberation for the settling the Government in the House of Commons and the direction of the affairs of the Treasury. My answer is in a letter to Sir George Lyttelton.'[231] This was practically giving powers to Lyttelton to negotiate with Newcastle as Pitt's representative; a strange choice, when we read in the covering letter to Temple: 'let me recommend to my dear Lord to preach prudence and reserve to our friend Sir George, and, if he can, inspire him with his own.' Lyttelton indeed was not destined ever to earn fame as a negotiator. And now it is necessary to give the principal passages of this letter to Lyttelton and the Cousinhood, which would have been a fuller and clearer manifesto had not all politicians at that time felt a well-grounded apprehension that their letters would be opened and read before they were delivered. Fulness and clearness were therefore the last qualities aimed at in their epistolary style, and inquiring posterity rues the result. Mr. Pitt to Sir George Lyttelton and the Grenville brothers. March 7, 1754. My dearest Friends,—[Then follows pompous regrets for Pelham's 'utterly irreparable' loss.] I will offer to the consideration of my friends but two things: the object to be wished for, the public; and the means; which the object itself seems to suggest; for the pursuit of it, my own object for the public, is, to support the King in quiet as long as he may have to live; and to strengthen the hands of the Princess of Wales, as much as may be, in order to maintain her power in the Government, in case of the misfortune of the King's demise. The means, as I said, suggest themselves: an union of all those in action who are really already united in their wishes as to the object: this might easily be effected, but it is my opinion, it will certainly not be done. As to the nomination of a Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Fox in point of party, seniority in the Corps, and I think ability for Treasury and House of Commons business stands, upon the whole, first of any. Doctor Lee if his health permits is Papabilis, and in some views very desirable. Te Quinte Catule, my dear George Grenville, would be my nomination. A fourth idea I will mention, which if practicable, and worth the person's while, might have great strength and efficiency for Government in it, and be perfectly adapted to the main future contingent object, could it be tempered so as to reconcile the Whigs to it: I mean to secularise, if I may use the expression, the Solicitor-General,[232] and make him Chancellor of the Exchequer. I call this an idea only; but I think it not visionary, were it accompanied by proper temperaments. I write these thoughts for Lord Temple, his brothers' and Sir George Lyttelton's consideration only, or rather as a communication of my first thoughts, upon an emergency that has too much importance and delicacy, as well as danger in it, to whoever delivers their opinion freely, to be imparted any farther. I am utterly unable to travel, nor can guess when I shall be able: this situation is most unfortunate. I am overpowered with gout, rather than relieved, but expect to be better for it. My dear friends over-rate infinitely the importance of my health, were it established: something I might weigh in such a scale as the present, but you, who have health to act, cannot fail to weigh much, if united in views. I will join you the first moment I am able, for letters cannot exchange one's thoughts upon matters so complicated, extensive and delicate. I don't a little wonder I have had no express from another quarter.[233] I repeat again, that what I have said are the breakings of first thoughts, to be confined to you four; and the looseness, and want of form in them, to be, I trust, excused in consideration of the state of mind and body of Your ever most affectionate, W. Pitt. As nothing is so delicate and dangerous, as every word uttered upon the present unexplained state of things, I mean unexplained, as to the King's inclinations towards Mr. Fox, and his real desire to have his own act of Regency, as it is called, maintained in the hands of the Princess; too much caution, reserve, and silence cannot be observed towards any who come to fish or sound your dispositions, without authority to make direct propositions. If eyes are really turned towards any connection of men, as a resource against dangers apprehended, that set of men cannot, though willing, answer the expectation without countenance, and additional consideration and weight added to them, by marks of Royal favour, one of the connection put into the Cabinet, and called to a real participation of councils and business. How our little connection has stood at all, under all depression and discountenance, or has an existence in the eyes of the public, I don't understand: that it should continue to do so, without an attribution of some new strength and consideration, arising from a real share in Government, I have difficulty to believe. I am, however, resolved to listen to no suggestions of certain feelings, however founded, but to go as straight as my poor judgment will direct me, to the sole object of public good. I don't think quitting of offices at all advisable, for public or private accounts: but as to answering any further purposes in the House of Commons, that must depend on the King's will and pleasure to enable us so to do.[234]
It will be observed that Pitt does not mention the Treasury; and he probably, though in his letter to Temple of the same date he speaks of the Duke's 'ability as Secretary of State,' took it for granted that Newcastle would succeed his brother; a proof of his perception. Yet Walpole tells us that it was to the astonishment of all men that Newcastle took the Treasury five days later. Next we may notice that he does not mention the Secretaryship of State to be vacated by Newcastle, which would seem to show that that office had long been destined by the cousinhood for himself. The postscript is extremely obscure, as it was probably intended to be. It seems to enjoin the greatest caution in dealing with any vague overtures which may be made, until it is known whether the King means to give his confidence to Fox, and whether he means to maintain the Regency as then established. But this phrase about the Regency is almost unintelligible. The last sentence in the postscript is the clearest of the letter. Let us remain in office, but whether we exert ourselves there or remain in sullen silence must depend on the attitude of the King. All this is enclosed in a covering letter to Temple— Mr. Pitt to Earl Temple. March 7, 1754. My dear Lord,—I return my answer to Jemmy's and Sir George's dispatch directed to you, and accompany it with this line to give you my apprehensions of Sir George's want of discretion and address, in such soundings as will be, and have been, made upon him, with regard to the disposition of his friends. I beg your Lordship will be so good to convene your brothers and Sir George, and communicate my letter to them which is addressed to you jointly. It is a most untoward circumstance that I cannot set out immediately to join you. I am extremely crippled and worn down with pain, which still continues. I make what efforts I can, and am carried out to breathe a little air. I write this hardly legible scrawl in my chaise. Let me recommend to my dear Lord to preach prudence and reserve to our friend Sir George, and if he can, to inspire him with his own. I heard some time since that the Princess inquired after my health; an honour which I received with much pleasure, as not void, perhaps, of some meaning. I have writ more to-day than my weak state, under such a shock as the news of to-day, will well permit. Believe me, my dearest Lord,
Ever most affectionately yours, W. Pitt. Fox will be Chancellor of the Exchequer, notwithstanding any reluctancy to yield to it in the Ministers; George Grenville may be offered Secretary at War; I am sure he ought to be so. I advise his acceptance. The Chancellor is the only resource; his wisdom, temper, and authority, joined to the Duke of Newcastle's ability as Secretary of State, are the dependance for Government. The Duke of Newcastle alone is feeble, this not to Sir George.[235]
Pitt's next step was to send two letters, in the same cover, to Lyttelton; one a confidential letter, the other, an ostensible one, to be sent to Hardwicke. The confidential letter, which follows, is striking, and contains as much of Pitt's plan of operations at this crisis as any that we possess. Bath, March 10th, 1754. Dear Lyttelton,—I am much obliged to you for your dispatch, and am highly satisfied with the necessary reserve you have kept with respect to the dispositions of yourself and friends. Indeed, the conjuncture itself, and more especially our peculiar situation, require much caution and measure in all our answers, in order to act like honest men, who determine to adhere to the public great object; as well as men who would not be treated like children. I am far from meaning to recommend a sullen, dark, much less a double conduct. All I mean is to lay down a plan to ourselves; which is, to support the King's Government in present, and maintain the Princess's authority and power in a future, contingency. As a necessary consequence of this system, I wish to see as little power in Fox's hands as possible, because he is incompatible with the main part, and indeed of the whole, of this plan; but I mean not to open myself to whoever pleases to sound my dispositions, with regard to persons especially, and by premature declarations deprive ourselves of the only chance we have of deriving any consideration to ourselves from the mutual fears and animosities of different factions in court: and expose ourselves to the resentment and malice in the closet of the one without stipulations or security for the good offices and weight of the other there in our favour. But do I mean, then, an absolute reserve, which has little less than the air of hostility towards our friends (such as they are) at Court, or at least, bear too plainly the indications of intending a third party or flying squadron? By no means. Nothing would, in my poor judgment, be so unfit and dangerous for us. I would be open and explicit (but only on proper occasions) that, I was most willing to support his Majesty's Government upon such a proper plan as I doubted not his Majesty, by the advice of his Ministers, would frame; in order to supply, the best that may be, the irreparable loss the King has sustained in Mr. Pelham's death: in order to secure the King ease for his life and future security to his family and to the kingdom: that my regards to the ministers in being were too well known to need any declarations;' this and the like, which may be vary'd for ever, is answer enough to any sounder. As to any things said by Principals in personal conference, as that of the Chancellor with you, another manner of talking will be proper, though still conformable to the same private plan which you shall resolve to pursue. Professions of personal regard cannot be made too strongly; but as to matter, generals are to be answered with generals; particulars, if you are led into them, need not at all be shunn'd; and if treated with common prudence and presence of mind, can not be greatly used to a man's prejudice; if he says nothing that implies specific engagements, without knowing specifically what he is to trust to reciprocally. Within these limitations, it seems to me, that a man whose intentions are clear and right, may talk without putting himself at another's mercy or offending him by a dark and mysterious reserve. I think it best to throw my answer to the Chancellor into a separate piece of paper, that you may send it to his lordship. I am sorry to be forced to answer in writing, because, not seeing the party, it is not possible to throw in necessary qualifications and additions or retractions, according to the impression things make. As far as, my dear Lyttelton, you are so good to relate your several conversations upon the present situation, I highly applaud your prudence. I hope you neither have nor will drop a word of menace, and that you will always bear in mind that my personal connection with the Duke of Newcastle, has a peculiar circumstance,[236] which yours and that of your friends has not. One cannot be too explicit in conversing at this unhappy distance on matters of this delicate and critical nature. I will, therefore, commit tautology, and repeat what I said in my former dispatch, viz., that it enters not the least into my plans to intimate quitting the King's service; giving trouble, if not satisfied, to Government. The essence of it exists in this: attachment to the King's service, and zeal for the ease and quiet of his life, and stability and strength to future government under the Princess; this declared openly and explicitly to the ministers. The reserve I would use should be with regard to listing in particular subdivisions, and thereby not freeing persons from those fears which will alone quicken them to give us some consideration for their own sakes: but this is to be done negatively only, by eluding explicit declarations with regard to persons especially; but by intimations of a possibility of our following our resentments; for, indeed, dear Sir George, I am determined not to go into faction. Upon the whole, the mutual fears in Court open to our connexion some room for importance and weight, in the course of affairs: in order to profit by this situation, we must not be out of office: and the strongest argument of all to enforce that, is, that Fox is too odious to last for ever, and G. Grenville must be next nominated under any Government. I am too lame to move. Your ever affectionate, W. Pitt.[237]
Then follows the apparent and ostensible letter to be shown to the Chancellor. It is from the nature of it artificial and need not be quoted in full. But it contains one remarkable passage in which Pitt claims credit for having renounced opposition and the accompanying popularity when he was convinced that there might be danger to the reigning family from his carrying it further. The assertion is striking and daring, and no doubt Pitt did join the Government while Charles Edward was still in arms. Bath, March 11th, 1754. My dear Sir George.—I beg you will be so good to assure my Lord Chancellor, in my name, of my most humble services and many very grateful acknowledgments for his Lordship's obliging wishes for my health.... I can never sufficiently express the high sense I have of the great honours of my Lord Chancellor's much too favourable opinion of his humble servant; but I am so truly and deeply conscious of so many of my wants in Parliament and out of it, to supply in the smallest degree this irreparable loss, that I can say with much truth were my health restored and his Majesty brought from the dearth of subjects to hear of my name for so great a charge, I should wish to decline the honour, even though accompany'd with the attribution of all the weight and strength which the good opinion and confidence of the master cannot fail to add to a servant; but under impressions in the Royal mind towards me, the reverse of these, what must be the vanity which would attempt it? These prejudices, however so successfully suggested and hitherto so unsuccessfully attempted to be removed, shall not abate my zeal for his Majesty's service, though they have so effectually disarmed me of all means of being useful to it. I need not suggest to his Lordship that consideration and weight in the House of Commons arises generally but from one of two causes—the protection and countenance of the Crown, visibly manifested by marks of Royal favour at Court, or from weight in the country, sometimes arising from opposition to the public measures. This latter sort of consideration it is a great satisfaction to me to reflect I parted with, as soon as I became convinced there might be danger to the family from pursuing opposition any further; and I need not say I have not had the honour to receive any of the former since I became the King's servant.... Perhaps some of my friends may not labour under all the prejudices that I do. I have reason to believe they do not: in that case should Mr. Fox be Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Secretary at War is to be filled up....[238]
He does not follow up this innuendo, nor was it necessary. The next day he writes frankly to Temple, who seems to have been much in Pitt's confidence at this time. Taken in conjunction with the secret letter to Lyttelton of March 10, the plan of operations is easily understood. We will leave ministers 'under the impression of their own fears and resentments, the only friends we shall ever have at Court, but to say not a syllable which can scatter terrors or imply menaces.' Pitt's plan, in a sentence, was to hang over the Government like a thundercloud, dark, silent, menacing, possibly to be dispelled, but ready and in an instant to pour destruction down. Mr. Pitt to Earl Temple. Bath, March 11, 1754. My dearest Lord,—I hope you will not disapprove my answer to Lord Chancellor. I include in you your brothers, for your Lordship's name is Legion. You will see the answer contains my whole poor plan; the essence of which is to talk modestly, to declare attachment to the King's government, and the future plan under the Princess, neither to intend nor intimate the quitting the service, to give no terrors by talking big, to make no declarations of thinking ourselves free by Mr. Pelham's death, to look out and fish in troubled waters, and perhaps help trouble them in order to fish the better: but to profess and to resolve bona fide to act like public men in a dangerous conjuncture for our country, and support Government when they will please to settle it; to let them see we shall do this from principles of public good, not as the bubbles of a few fair words, without effects (all this civilly), and to be collected by them, not expressed by us; to leave them under the impressions of their own fears and resentments, the only friends we shall ever have at Court, but to say not a syllable which can scatter terrors or imply menaces. Their fears will increase by what we avoid saying concerning persons (though what I think of Fox, etc., is much fixed), and by saying very explicitly, as I have (but civilly), that we have our eyes open to our situation at Court, and the foul play we have had offered us in the Closet: to wait the working of all these things in offices, the best we can have, but in offices. My judgment tells me, my dear Lord, that this simple plan steadily pursued will once again, before it be long, give some weight to a connection, long depressed, and yet still not annihilated. Mr. Fox's having called at my door early the morning Mr. Pelham died is, I suppose, no secret, and a lucky incident, in my opinion. I have a post letter from the Duke of Newcastle, a very obliging one. I heartily pity him, he suffers a great deal for his loss. Give me leave to recommend to your Lordship a little gathering of friends about you at dinners, without ostentation. Stanley, who will be in Parliament: some attention to Sir Richard Lyttelton I should think proper; a dinner to the Yorkes very seasonable; and, before things are settled, any of the Princess of Wales's Court. John Pitt not to be forgot: I know the Duke of B—— nibbles at him: in short liez commerce with as many members of Parliament, who may be open to our purposes, as your Lordship can. Pardon, my dear Lord, all this freedom, but the conjuncture is made to awaken men, and there is room for action. I have no doubt George Grenville's turn must come. Fox is odious, and will have difficulty to stand in a future time. I mend a little. I cannot express my impatience to be with you. W. Pitt.[239]
On March 18, Lyttelton writes to Grenville to ask if he shall send an express down to Pitt as 'he will be impatient to hear particulars,' with the news that Grenville and the writer had accepted office, and 'things are not as much settled as they are likely to be till the dissolution of parliament. I have had no answer from him to my last letter; have you?' But this unanswered letter may not have reached its destination, or was destitute of certain intelligence, for we find Pitt writing to Lyttelton on March 20: 'I conclude that things still remain unsettled, because I hear nothing from you or my other friends relating to them.' So he is solacing himself by reading Bolingbroke's works. Their arrogance, he says, is so excessive, that, great as is the performance, it often becomes ridiculous. There was, he remembers, not many years ago, a man in Bedlam, a scholar of fine parts, who used to entertain all the spectators of that asylum with very rational discourses, and talked with wit and eloquence; but always concluded by assuring his hearers that he alone of all his hearers was in his right senses, and they and all mankind were mad, and had conspired to put him in that place; Bolingbroke reminds Pitt of this lunatic. There was indeed no love lost between the two men. Pitt had not treated the elder statesman with the deference paid to him by the adoring circle in which he lived, and Bolingbroke had then charged Pitt with the same fault which Pitt now found in Bolingbroke. On March 24, in a letter to Grenville, he pursues the same theme, and dubs Bolingbroke the 'intellectual Sampson of Battersea.' But six weeks afterwards, we find him warmly recommending Bolingbroke's 'Remarks on the History of England' to his nephew 'to be studied and almost got by heart for the inimitable beauty of the style as well as the matter.' And now comes a letter of which not a word must be omitted, the memorable letter to Newcastle of March 24, long supposed to be lost, but now discovered among the Newcastle Papers. It was penned under the just resentment caused by the knowledge of the arrangements for office from which he had been insultingly ignored. It is, so far as we know, the greatest that Pitt ever wrote, full of scornful humility, suppressed passion, and pointed insinuation. Unlike most of his letters it needs no interpretation, it speaks for itself. That bitterness of indignation, which is said to produce poetry, has in this instance evolved clearness and force. Towards the end, after speaking of resignation, and of his wish for retirement, he utters this prophecy, baleful to Newcastle, who should have remembered that the prophet had it in his power to fulfil his own prediction. 'Indeed, my lord, the inside of the House must be consider'd in other respects besides merely numbers, or the reins of government will soon slip or be wrested out of any minister's hands.' A few months were to bring home to the duke the truth of this prediction. Pitt to Newcastle. Bath, 24 March, 1754. My Lord Duke,—I have heard with the highest satisfaction by a message from Sr George Lyttelton the effectual proofs of his Majesty's great kindness and firm confidence in your Grace for the conduct of his Government. You have certainly taken most wisely the Province of the Treasury to yourself, where the powers of Government reside, and which at this particular crisis of a General Election may lay the foundations of the future political system so fast as not to be shaken hereafter. But this will depend upon many concomitant circumstances. For the present the nation may say with consolation, uno avulso non deficit alter aureus. The power of the Purse in the hands of the same family may, I trust, be so used as to fix all other power there along with it. Amidst all the real satisfaction I feel on this great measure so happily taken, it is with infinite reluctance that I am forced to return to the mortifying situation of your Grace's humblest servant and to add some few considerations to those, which, I have the satisfaction to learn from Sr George Lyttelton, had the honour to be receiv'd by your Grace and my Lord Chancellor without disapprobation. The difficulties grow so fast upon me by the repetition and multiplication of most painfull and too visible humiliations that my small store of prudence suggests no longer to me any means of colouring them to the world; nor of repairing them to my own mind consistently with my unshaken purpose to do nothing on any provocation to disturb the quiet of the King and the ease and stability of present and future Government. Permit, my Lord, a man, whose affectionate attachment to your Grace, I believe, you don't doubt, to expose simply to your view his situation, and then let me entreat your Grace (if you can divest your mind of the great disparity between us) to transport yourself for a moment into my place. From the time I had the honour to come into the King's service, I have never been wanting in my most zealous endeavours in Parliament on the points that laboured the most, those of military discipline and foreign affairs; nor have I differ'd on any whatever, but the too small number of seamen one year, which was admitted to be so the next; and on a crying complaint against General Anstruther: for these crimes how am I punish'd? Be the want of subjects ever so great and the force of the conjuncture ever so cogent, be my best friends and protectors ever so much at the head of Government, an indelible negative is fixed against my name. Since I had the honour to return that answer to the Chancellor which Your Grace and his Lordship were pleas'd not to disapprove, how have mortifications been multiply'd upon me. One Chancellor of the Exchequer over me was at that time destin'd, Mr. Fox: since that time a second, Mr. Legge, is fixt: a Secretary of State is next to be look'd for in the House of Commons; Mr. Fox is again put over me and destin'd to that office: he refuses the seals: Sir Thomas Robinson is immediately put over me and is now in possession of that great office. I sincerely think both these high employments much better fill'd than I cou'd supply either of them in many respects. Mr. Legge I truely and cordially esteem and love. Sir Thos. Robinson, with whom I have not the honour to live in the same intimacy, I sincerely believe to be a gentleman of much worth and ability. Nevertheless I will venture to appeal to your Grace's candour and justice whether upon such feeble pretensions as twenty years' use of Parliament may have given me, I have not some cause to feel (as I do most deeply) so many repeated and visible humiliations. I have troubled your Grace so long on this painfull subject that I may have nothing disagreeable to say, when I have the honour to wait on you; as well as that I think it fit your Grace shou'd know the whole heart of a faithfull servant, who is conscious of nothing towards your Grace which he wishes to conceal from you. In my degraded situation in parliament, an active part there I am sure your Grace is too equitable to desire me to take; for otherwise than as an associate and in equal rank with those charg'd with Government there, I never can take such a part. I will confess I had flatter'd myself that the interests of your Grace's own power were so concern'd to bring forward an instrument of your own raising in the House of Commons that you cou'd not let pass this decisive occasion without surmounting in the royal mind the unfavourable impressions I have the unhappiness to be under; and that the seals (at least when refus'd by Mr. Fox) might have been destin'd as soon as an opening cou'd be made in the King's mind in my favour instead of being immediately put into other hands. Things standing as they do, whether I can continue in office without losing myself in the opinion of the world is become a matter of very painfull doubt to me. If any thing can colour with any air of decency such an acquiescence, it can only be the consideration given to my friends and some degree of softening obtain'd in his Majesty's mind towards me. Mr Pelham destin'd Sir George Lyttelton to be cofferer, whenever that office shou'd open, and there can be no shadow of difficulty in Mr Grenville being made Treasurer of the Navy. Weighed in the fair scale of usefulness to the King's business in Parliament, they can have no competitors that deserve to stand in their way. I have submitted these things to your Grace with a frankness you had hitherto been so good to tolerate in me, however inferior. I wou'd not have done it so fully for my own regard alone, were I not certain that your Grace's interests are more concern'd in it than mine: because I am most sure that my mind carries me more strongly towards retreat than towards courts and business. Indeed, My Lord, the inside of the House must be consider'd in other respects besides merely numbers, or the reins of Government will soon slip or be wrested out of any minister's hands. If I have spoken too freely, I humbly beg your Grace's pardon: and entreat you to impute my freedom to the most sincere and unalterable attachment of a man who never will conceal his heart, and who can complain without alienation of mind and remonstrate without resentment. I have the honour to be, etc. etc. W. Pitt. I cannot hope to leave Bath in less than a week. My health seems much mended by my gout.[240]
This letter was enclosed to Lyttelton under flying seal to be communicated to the Grenvilles. Pitt, writing the same day to Temple, says: 'I hope my letter to the Duke of Newcastle will meet with the fraternal approbation. It is strong, but not hostile, and will, I believe, operate some effect. I am still more strongly fixed in my judgement that the place of importance is employment, in the present unsettled conjuncture. It may not to us be the place of dignity, but sure I am it is that of the former. I see, as your Lordship does, the treatment we have had: I feel it as deeply, but I believe, not so warmly. I don't suffer my feelings to warp the only plan I can form that has any tendency or meaning. For making ourselves felt, by disturbing Government, I think would prove hurtful to the public, not reputable to ourselves, and beneficial in the end, only to others. All Achilles as you are, Impiger, Iracundus, etc., what would avail us to sail back a few myrmidons to Thessaly! Go over to the Trojans, to be revenged, we none of us can bear the thought of. What then remains? The conduct of the much-enduring man, who by temper, patience, and persevering prudence, became adversis rerum immersabilis undis.' He adds another postscript of caution: 'Be so good as not to leave my letters in your pockets, but lock them up or burn them, and caution Sir George to do the same.'[241] Secrecy was of the essence of his scheme. Should Newcastle or the Chancellor understand the part that he designed to play, they would have an advantage in the game. On April 2 Pitt writes to jog Newcastle's memory in a note about the Aldborough election: 'I had expected to hear from you, but I know the multiplicity of your business.'[242] He need not have feared that his letter had been overlooked. So little was this the case that, no doubt after anxious and protracted conferences, Newcastle and Hardwicke were both writing to him on this very day long and elaborate apologies. Hardwicke's is a document, as might be expected, of great but inadequate skill.[243] It gives him much concern to find that Pitt is 'under apprehensions of some neglect on this decisive occasion.' He is not altogether surprised. Could Pitt only have heard how warmly Hardwicke pressed his claims! But there are certain things which ministers cannot do directly. These must be left to 'time and incidents and perhaps ill-judging opponents.' Fox's pressing for larger powers than the King would give had no doubt helped the cause of Pitt, and Newcastle's being at the head of the Government whose devotion to Pitt was so notorious would further it still more. He concludes by hoping with sincerity that Pitt would take an active part, though no doubt had he seen the direction in which his wish was fulfilled, he would have withdrawn it with greater emphasis. This stripped of verbiage seems the bone of this long letter. Behind Hardwicke shuffles Newcastle. 'Feel for me,' he plaintively exclaims, 'for my melancholy and distressed situation: compelled to leave the department of which I was a master to one with which I was entirely ignorant, exposed to envy and reproach, and sure of nothing but the comfort of an honest heart.' It had first been suggested that Fox should be Secretary of State to make Newcastle's elevation more palatable to his opponents. But 'that for certain reasons did not take place; upon which the King himself, of his own motion declared Sir Thomas Robinson Secretary of State.' And this Pitt's friends thought the best practicable arrangement. For though an excellent man for the office, Robinson had not Parliamentary talents which could excite jealousy, and as, from circumstances deeply lamented by Newcastle, 'it was impossible to put one into that office who had all the necessary qualifications both within and out of the House,' there seemed nothing better to do than to appoint the inoffensive Sir Thomas. All interspersed with copious assurances of love and affection. 'I honour, esteem, and ... most sincerely love you.'[244] Pitt replies to Newcastle in a letter which it is necessary to print in full from the original in the Newcastle Papers, for this is very different from the draft printed in the Chatham Correspondence. Pitt to Newcastle. Bath, 4 Apr. 1754. My Lord Duke,—I was honour'd with your Grace's letter of ye 2nd inst. yesterday evening. How shall I find words to express my sense of the great condescension and kindness of expression with which it is writ? It would be making but an ill return to so much goodness, were I to go back far into the disagreeable subject that has occasion'd your Grace so much trouble, and wou'd be tearing and wounding your good nature to little purpose. Whatever my sensations are, it is sufficient that I have once freely laid them before you, and that your Grace has had the indulgence to pardon that freedom, which I thought I used both to your Grace and myself. As for the rest, my attachment shall be ever found as unalterable to Government as my inability to be of any material use to it is become manifest to all the world. I will enter again, but for a word or two, into a subject your Grace shall be troubled no more with. It is most obliging to suggest as consolations to me that I might have been much more mortify'd under another management than under the present: but I will freely own I shou'd have felt myself far less personally humiliated, had Mr. Fox been placed by the King's favour at the head of the House of Commons, than I am at present: in that case the necessity wou'd have been apparent: the ability of the subject wou'd in some degree have warranted the thing. I shou'd indeed have been much mortify'd for your Grace and for my Lord Chancellor: very little for my own particular. Cou'd Mr. Murray's situation have allow'd him to be placed at the head of the House of Commons, I shou'd have served under him with the greatest pleasure: I acknowledge as much as the rest of the world do his superiority in every respect. My mortification arises not from silly pride, but from being evidently excluded by a negative personal to me (now and for ever) flowing from a displeasure utterly irremovable. As to the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer, I hope your Grace cannot think me fill'd with so impertinent a vanity as to imagine it a disparagement to me to serve under the Duke of Newcastle at the head of the Treasury: but, my Lord, had I been proposed for that honour and the King been once reconciled to the thought of me, my honour wou'd have been saved and I shou'd with pleasure have declin'd the charge in favour of Mr. Legge from a just regard to his Majesty's service. I know my health, at best, is too precarious a thing to expose his Majesty's affairs in Parliament to suffer delay, perhaps in the middle of a session by being in such improper hands. As to the other great office, many circumstances of it render an uninterrupted health not so absolutely necessary to the discharge of it. Were I to fail in it from want of health, or, what is still more likely, from want of ability and a sufficient knowledge of foreign affairs, a fitter person might at any time be substituted without material inconvenience to publick business. To conclude, my Lord, and to release your Grace from a troublesome correspondent, give me leave to recur to your Grace's equity and candour: when the suffrage of the party in one instance, and a higher nomination, the Royal designation in another, operate to the eternal precluding of a man's name being so much as brought in question, what reasonable wish can remain for a man so circumstanced (under a first resolution, on no account to disturb Government) but that of a decent retreat, a retreat of respect, not resentment: of despair of being ever accepted to equal terms with others, be his poor endeavours ever so zealous. Very few have been the advantages and honours of my life: but among the first of them I shall ever esteem the honour of your Grace's good opinion: to that good opinion and protection I recommend myself: and hope from it that some retreat, neither disagreeable nor dishonourable, may (when practicable) be open'd to me. I see with great joy Sr George Lyttelton and Mr. Grenville in this arrangement, where they ought to be. I am persuaded they will be of the greatest advantage to your Grace's system. They are both connected in friendship with Mr. Legge and with Mr. Murray, who in effect is the greatest strength of it in parliament. May every kind of satisfaction and honour attend your Grace's labours for his Majesty's service. I have the honour, etc. etc. W. Pitt. I wrote your Grace by the Post ye 2nd inst. which I hope came to your hands.'[245]
Two days afterwards he answered Hardwicke. In this letter the notable passage is that in which he points to retreat, having in his mind, it would seem, some specific office:—'The weight of irremovable royal displeasure is a load too great to move under; it must crush any man; it has sunk and broken me. I succumb, and wish for nothing but a decent and innocent retreat.... To speak without a figure I will presume ... to tell my utmost wish; it is that a retreat, not void of advantage or derogatory to the rank of the office I hold, might, as soon as practicable, be opened to me.... Out of his Grace's (Newcastle's) immediate province accommodations of this kind arise.'[246] By the same messenger Pitt wrote to Lyttelton one of the terse notes which throw a hundredfold more light on his real temper than his more pompous lucubrations, and which are infinitely more readable than the long rigmaroles which he wrote to official persons. He professes in this to be more than satisfied with Newcastle's answer, and also with the Chancellor's. ... The Duke of Newcastle's letter to me is not only in a temper very different from what you saw his Grace in, but is writ with a condescension, and in terms so flattering, that it pains me. I am almost tempted to think there is kindness at the bottom of it, which, if left to itself, would before now have shewed itself in effects. If I have not the fruit, I have the leaves of it in abundance; a beautiful foliage of fine words.... The Chancellor's letter is the most condescending, friendly, obliging thing that can be imagined. I have the deepest sense of his goodness for me; but I am really compelled, by every reason fit for a man to listen to, to resist (as to the point of activity in Parliament) farther than I like to do. I have intimated retreat and pointed out such a one in general as I shall really like. Resolved not to disturb Government; I desire to be released from the oar of Parliamentary drudgery. I am (un)willing[247] to sit there and be ready to be called out into action when the Duke of Newcastle's personal interests might require, or Government should deign to employ me as an instrument. I am not fond of making speeches (though some may think I am). I never cultivated the talent, but as an instrument of action in a country like ours....[248]
The places were now all filled: the Government was made up: Pitt was excluded and proscribed. Fox or Murray, he admitted, might reasonably be put over his head. But the promotion of Robinson was a personal outrage. So he would no longer sit in Parliament as a subordinate and almost a creature of Newcastle's, member for one of his boroughs, Paymaster in his administration. Pitt was now determined to be free. He would remain out of London, and they might see how they got on without him. When he did return to London they should realise what they had lost. Meanwhile he would occupy himself with a little architecture and a little gardening; all that he was fit for, as he would assure inquirers with obsequious sarcasm.
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