though in a different way from what it was when I saw him last; that the hopes we had then entertained of seeing this country immediately freed from the administration of the most contemptible of men were blasted in the very manner he himself had suggested, by Fox's eagerness for place and power, as he had now most effectually secured him in his office, perhaps for life. He interrupted me with eagerness: "Did not I tell you so? If you remember, I said the very thing, that if I had been the privy counsellor and bosom friend of the Duke of Newcastle when Mr. Pitt had so virtuously and so honourably refused his support, I would have advised him to have offered any terms whatever to Fox, who perhaps might be unwary enough to accept them," and it seems he has done it. I answered, 't is true he has done it, whether through unwariness, or whether through that thirst of power and money which I remembered likewise he had observed to be Fox's characteristics, I could not tell; but the thing was done, and those whom he had extolled for their virtue and firmness were now likely to fall the victims of it. I added that I found Lord T. (Temple) had been at W. (Woburn), and had signified to him Mr. Pitt's feelings of that full and explicit approbation of his conduct which he had commissioned me to deliver (to this he assented with a nod); but that I found Lord Temple alarmed, and Mr. Pitt much more so, at some representations which had been made to him of a conversation that had passed, the beginning of the summer, between Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox at Lord H.'s (Hillsborough's?), and that he had disapproved of the part Mr. Pitt then took. He told me it was true; that the day after I had seen

him, Mr. Rigby' came down to him from Mr. Fox; that Rigby was in the greatest agitation from the imagination that all cement between Pitt and Fox was broke, for that Fox had told him the reason of his taking this part was, Mr. Pitt's having declared in that conversation more than once that he would have nothing more to do with him. That he had asked whether he, Mr. Pitt, had anything to object to him or his conduct since they had acted together; whether he had assumed too much, or behaved improperly; to all which Mr. Pitt answered, no; he was perfectly satisfied with his behaviour, which had been open, and that of a gentleman, but that (a very remarkable expression, and which could not be mistaken) they were upon different lines, possibly, and he hoped they would prove, convergent; but their ground at present was so different, that he could not go with him either into Court or Opposition. This conversation I own, says he, did make a great impression upon me; I could not doubt the truth of it, because I have an opinion of Fox's honour so far as to think he would not lie; and yet that Mr. Pitt should bluntly and without provocation tell Mr. Fox that he would neither go with him into Court or Opposition did exceedingly dissatisfy me.

I told him that no one, I believed, could give a better account of that conversation than myself, as Mr. Pitt had

Mr. Rigby came into Parliament for the borough of Tavistock, under the patronage of the Duke of Bedford, and when his Grace became Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, in 1757, Mr. Rigby was appointed Chief Secretary, and he held at the same time the office of Master of the Rolls, in Ireland. His letters in the Bedford Correspondence, show how intimately he was in the confidence of the Duke, up to the time of his death in 1771.

given me an account of it long before Mr. Fox had thought it right to make any use of it; that I would not determine whether Mr. Fox would lie, but I was sure he would most egregiously misrepresent, and that he had given a most astonishing instance of it in this report of that conversation; that I would deal with him very frankly, and speak with great confidence to him. I had been one of those whose inclination as well as principles had led me to consider the Duke of Newcastle as the great object of opposition; that with this view I had been solicitous to forward every junction which was likely to contribute to his destruction; that it was visible to all the world that a union of Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox must (as in effect it had) be the coup de grâce to him; that in the course of forming this union, and during its continuance, I had watched the turns of Mr. Pitt's mind, and that nothing could be clearer than it was of all ideas of rivalship, or of private animosity, but that Mr. Pitt's sagacity, as well as his Grace's, had discovered in Mr. Fox's temper that eagerness for power which inspired a doubt of his firmness on trying occasions; that the suspicion was but too often increased by Mr. Fox's conduct; that it was apparent he was always pursuing a private rather than a joint plan. I then went through the history of the whole session, beginning with the attack on Murray touching Ireland, and ending with the Regency that all these things together had filled Mr. Pitt's mind so full of suspicions, that, as I thought a man of honour ought always to do, he had resolved to open himself fully to him; that he had done so in this conversation, in which, far from approving the whole of Mr. Fox's conduct, he had told him all I had recapitulated, as reasons which made it impossible that any union could

continue; that nothing could be so absurd as a union where only one side was bound, and that Mr. Fox had ever kept in reserve an implicit obedience to the commands of the Duke of Cumberland, whose soldier Mr. Pitt was not, and whose commands might, at the end of a campaign, counteract all that had been jointly done; that, therefore, till Mr. Fox could call himself sui juris, and could agree to walk with Mr. Pitt either in the paths of Court or Opposition, as should be found most expedient, no union could subsist, nor was it to any purpose they should meet to embarrass each other; that if Mr. Pitt did use that remarkable expression that they were on different lines, he used it with great justice, because Mr. Fox never would stand upon the straight line which led to the end in view, but would have deviations and stops of his own.

He appeared extremely satisfied with the account, and said the story was perfectly natural, and the observations on Mr. Fox's conduct during the course of the session just; but, says he, it is the easiest thing to pervert conversations, and each man may make his own account plausible; that therefore he thought it was but justice, before he determined his opinion, to hear what was said on each side, which he hoped to have an opportunity of doing, as he would go to town the end of this month for five days, and return hither for a week, and then go to the meeting of Parliament; that Fox had sent to him the strongest assurances that he came in with a view to strengthen himself in the Closet, and to undermine the Duke of Newcastle; that he had come in against all the efforts both of the Duke of Newcastle and Lord Chancellor, by the influence of the Duke of Cumberland.

I told him this was very inconsistent with all the

declarations both of the Duke of Newcastle and Lord Chancellor, who expressed to every one who would hear them their high satisfaction not only in the assurances Mr. Fox had given them, but in the candour of his conduct since; that one way or other, Mr. Fox's conduct was unjustifiable, for if he really meant to support the Duke of Newcastle, he betrayed his friends who wished to oppose him, and if he really meant to undermine him, he was the villain who smiles in your face and stabs you to the heart. Yes, but says he, Fox insists he has made no promise, except that he will do the King's business. However, I think on the whole as you do, that Fox's acceptance has been precipitate and ill-judged; that he has saved the Duke of Newcastle, who, without his acceptance, was absolutely un done; that Fox could have run no risk in standing of as Mr. Pitt had refused first, and as, if the Duke of Newcastle fell, he stood first in the graces of te Closet; that he might have refused now with muc more safety than he did a year and a half since and as he lost no favour then, he could have lost

none now.

ut,

My next business was to get some information of his opinion as to the subsidies. I therefore said, that for my own part, nothing could have given me more real concern, for besides that not only the great end of my life, the destruction of the Duke of Newcastle, was defeated, but Fox, for whom I had a real respect, and who even now had shown me a very particular civility (relating to him the occasion), had taken so unpopular a point, that he would undo himself with mankind, for that however he might flatter himself, the idea of a continental war, and subsidies, was in the minds of

VOL. I.

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