been Secretary of State, that the Minister in the House of Commons ought for the honour of the House to have a very high place, and these would like it still less if I had none at all. I would not have you think that I believe nobody abuses me, though it is not in the strain and with the fury and in general as I expected, among those who did abuse. It was said I was to have a great sum of money for making the Peace; this I had from one who heard it. It immediately struck me that what I was going to do would be no prevention of this abuse, or perhaps rather give a colour to it and be esteemed as affectation of disinterestedness put on to cover some great job. Adieu.
Ever yours,
H. Fox.
This change of mind on the part of Fox was destined to have important consequences, as Shelburne, whose fault throughout these negotiations was the impulsiveness not unnatural in a young and inexperienced negotiator, remained under the impression that Fox's sense of honour would compel him to retire from the Pay Office, when he had carried through the work which he had undertaken in the House of Commons; as he would then receive the peerage which was to be his reward and would also be in the full enjoyment of the wealthy sinecure charged on the Exchequer of Ireland, for which he had been waiting ever since 1757.[1] Shelburne forgot that he had been negotiating with one of the astutest minds in the political world, whose recent nomination to lead the House of Commons was being justified at this moment by the King in the cynical words: "We must call in bad men to govern bad men."[2]
- ↑ Grenville Correspondence, i. 452.
- ↑ Mr. Riker suggests, in his Life of the first Lord Holland, and with great probability, that there was another misunderstanding, viz. that Fox believed he was to receive an Earldom (vol. ii. pp. 253, 296). See also Walpole to Mann, April 30th, 1763, Correspondence, iv. 72.
