frequently followed in the period of history which these volumes cover, it gradually ceased to be a recognised accompaniment of a change of Ministry. The former class of dismissals Shelburne strenuously urged on Bute, and few will blame him, but it cannot be denied that he consented to the latter as well, at least by silence. "Before another question comes," he writes, "let the 213 taste some of the plunder of the 74. Without you do somewhat of that kind, you'll find your cause want a necessary animation and your friends want encouragement.[1] … The Tories, as well as other more material ones, will suspect you leave the door open for those against whom they were brought to shut it. If there is any opposition, Mr. Pitt will certainly be the soul of it, and has not he even got credit by his treatment of these gentlemen? I express myself to you in a hurry, going to the country; as Mr. Fox told me last night, he thought the King relaxed very much in regard to the Lieutenancies and to the plan of those who voted, and some who are professedly every hour labouring against you. At least, I would not suffer their conduct on Thursday to wipe off all the other acts which they have attempted."[2]
But Fox was not even satisfied with the fall of the great Whig Peers; and here he and Shelburne parted company.
"The majority," writes Shelburne, "on the side of the government may be fairly said to have turned Mr. Fox's head. He thought he had performed everything he promised, and that he could not be sufficiently rewarded. He therefore, being still determined to retire at the end of the year, that is to go to the House of Lords, no longer took any trouble about the individuals or the business of the House of Commons. His neglect of every individual with whom he was not particularly connected by
- ↑ On December 1st Mr. Calvert had moved to defer considering the preliminaries and had been beaten by 213 to 74. (Walpole, Memoirs of the Reign of George III., i. 222.)
- ↑ Shelburne to Bute, December 1762. The allusion to the "conduct of Thursday" means the abstention of the friends of the Duke of Newcastle from the division on the preliminaries.
