I had some fears lest I should not have got leave to have wrote at all, as the King, when I spoke about it yesterday, said nothing: so as soon as Lord Bute told me he thought my idea right, I wrote the letter, and think, by what the Duc de Nivernois must have wrote, if the Duke of Bedford mentions the Havannah at all, it will draw an explanation from them without fail. I am ever, &c., &c.

EGREMONT.

MR. GRENVILLE TO THE EARL OF EGREMONT.

Sunday, October 10 (1762).

I Do not see any intimation of a compensation for the Havannah in the despatch proposed to be sent to the Duke of Bedford; but as I am an entire stranger to all that may have been settled within these few days, I must leave the consideration of it to your Lordship, who having seen Lord Bute yesterday, are certainly better informed.

THE EARL OF EGREMONT TO MR. GRENVILLE.

(Sunday, October 10, 1762).

LORD BUTE (who told me yesterday he now was resolved to have a compensation for the Havannah, or continue the war) settled with me according to my proposal that I should write to the Duke of Bedford, to account for our delay, and prepare him for what he was to expect in the answer to his projet.

I send you the draft, and if you approve it, and return it, will, after sending it to St. James's, despatch it for France.

VOL. I.

I I

THE EARL OF BUTE TO MR. GRENVILLE.

Sunday night (October 10, 1762). DEAR SIR, Though I am convinced of the necessity of some new arrangement to carry through the King's measures at this most critical minute, in order to enlarge the too narrow bottom of the Cabinet, and by firmness and unanimity to procure confidence and support; yet my friendship was so extremely sensible to the least uneasiness these ideas might give you, that I determined to open my thoughts at first through the channel of a common friend'; this done, I can't too soon have an opportunity of explaining the measures that occur to me as indispensably necessary at present, to resist the most audacious plan that ever was formed, to give the law to the best of Kings, at the risk even of the nation's safety, and at the same time of learning how far these things are agreeable to you, and likely to meet with your concurrence: if, therefore, it will suit your conveniency, I should be glad to see you to-morrow at nine.

I name so early an hour, as I must go out at ten. I am, dear Sir, with the greatest truth and regard, yours most sincerely.

BUTE.

(The following Narrative is entirely in the handwriting of Mr. Grenville.)

ON Saturday, October 9, 1762, Mr. Jenkinson, Lord Bute's Secretary, brought me a message from Lord Bute, informing me of an arrangement that was proposed to be made, by which I was to resign the seals of Secretary of State, which were intended 1 Mr. Jenkinson.

to be given to Lord Halifax, whom I was to succeed as First Lord of the Admiralty, and that it was proposed that Mr. Fox should take the lead in the House of Commons, and the next day October 10th, Lord Bute wrote to me to desire to see me. We accordingly met, October 11th, when the intended plan was opened fully to me, together with the reasons assigned for it, which were the necessity of a more extended plan to resist the design that had been formed to give law to the King. The opinion I had declared some time ago of the difficulties to carry on the business of the House of Commons, without being authorized to talk to the members of that House upon their several claims and pretensions', and having them communicated through me to Lord Bute and to the King, which was a circumstance that Lord Bute could not consent to; the frequent differences of opinion in the Cabinet which had transpired, and were publicly talked of in the City, particularly my differing with the rest of the King's servants about St. Lucia being given up, and lately about the Havannah being restored without a compensation, which, however, Lord Bute was now determined to insist upon; and lastly, with regard to the laying the Preliminaries of the ensuing Peace before Parliament for their opinion previous to their being signed, which I had earnestly wished and recommended. These matters were stated with the

1 This seems but a reasonable demand upon the part of Mr. Grenville, and there can be little doubt but that it was stipulated by Fox, before he accepted the management of the House of Commons, that the members of that House should be dependant upon himself personally, without the interference of Lord Bute; that he should be enabled to talk to them, or, in other words, to traffic with them for the purchase of their votes: so notoriously corrupt were the Members of the House of Commons at this period!

utmost civility, but with great marks of uneasiness, and the warmest expressions of friendship from Lord Bute to me, desiring and earnestly hoping that neither this nor any other circumstance might ever diminish it in the least. To this I answered that I had declined entering into this subject with Mr. Jenkinson, but that I owned I had received the communication of it with the greatest surprise; that I desired to know before I gave any answer whatever, whether the King was in any instance displeased with me, or whether Lord Bute thought that he had the least reason to complain of me in any respect; that it was absolutely necessary for me to know this, and to set it on a right footing in the first place, before I proceeded to the consideration of anything else. Lord Bute would scarce suffer me to state this question before he interrupted me with the strongest assurances of the high opinion and good-will the King entertained of me; that this was at no point of time in my life higher than in the present moment; that the King depended upon my services to his Government, which he hoped to avail himself of, even in a more material instance than what he now destined me to; that he, Lord Bute, knew my zeal and attachment to the King, and had therefore always wished to see me at the head of the Treasury; that he knew my fitness and talents for that great department, and felt thoroughly how unfit he was for it; that the King had urged him and compelled him first to take the seals of Secretary of State, and afterwards to come to the head of the Treasury; that he had been heartily tired of the first, and was now still more weary of the second, not knowing the language he was to hold, and the manner of dealing with the monied people and the merchants; that from these considerations he had

besought the King for some weeks together to permit him to retire from it, but that his instances had made the King so uneasy, that he frequently sat for hours together leaning his head upon his arm without speaking; that one of the highest rank who was deservedly most dear to the King (by the manner of which expression I was rather led to understand the Queen, although it might be applicable to the Princess Dowager of Wales) having observed it, had earnestly desired him, Lord Bute, to give ease and tranquillity to the King's mind; that accordingly he had told the King that he was ready to do whatever His Majesty liked, being devoted to his service and bound by every tie of duty, gratitude, and inclination, to look upon any sacrifice of himself as nothing when compared to what he owed to His Majesty ; that from this motive only he had consented to stay where he was, and to think of some plan to assist the most amiable Prince that ever sat upon the throne, and to prevent his being delivered up to receive the law from a wicked faction who tried to avail themselves of .

(imperfect).

MR. WILKES TO EARL TEMPLE.

Winchester, October 12, 1762.

MY LORD,-I beg pardon for an omission I was guilty of at Stowe, in not mentioning the unanimous desire of all the gentlemen at the Quarter Sessions that the Address might be presented as soon as possible to His Majesty, and might be inserted in several of the newspapers. I had the earnest command of the whole