to some of the purposes mentioned, detrimental to all, carrying with it an appearance of fear and timidity foreign to my heart and most inconsistent with my situation. No, my dear Lord, if the storm thickens and danger menaces, let me stand foremost in the ranks, I claim the post of honour, and will now for the first time fling away the scabbard. Next to my little experience of business my unwillingness to punish has been no little drawback to me as Minister; I know it; I know the constructions put upon my conduct; few, very few, indeed judge of me as I am, and even my noble Friend may sometimes have imputed actions to my timidity which spring from motives of a more generous nature: but now the King's situation, the perilous condition of the country, the insolence of faction, demand a rougher rein and I have taken my part. The more I reflect on Mr. Fox's conduct at this crisis, the more I admire the noble and generous manner in which he quits retirement and security to stand with me the brunt of popular clamour, in supporting the best of Princes against the most ungenerous, the most ungrateful set of men this country ever produced.
I am,
Your Lordship's obedient servant,
Bute.
When Mr. Fox accepted the lead of the House of Commons he at first believed that he would have to surrender the Pay Office, not imagining that public opinion would allow him to keep a position of great emolument while performing a task which it was practically as well known to others as to himself, was to be otherwise rewarded, especially when he was about to enter, as all the political world well knew, on the enjoyment of the large income of the Irish sinecure, which amounted to £1600 a year.[1] There was a well-known precedent pointing out what was right. Horatio, the first Lord Walpole, had been appointed to the lucrative office of Teller of the Exchequer
- ↑ Thom's Irish Tracts and Treatise, ii. 241. It is perfectly true that the Irish sinecure was never expressly mentioned in the negotiations, and Fox took full advantage of this.
