Holland is so much against it and so miserable at the thoughts of it, that I could not but keep my faith with her, and desist from persuading Mr. Fox to what she says would make her miserable and kill him. I am sorry to find, in the course of the whole that passed yesterday, both Lord Bute and the other think of themselves without considering what becomes of those who supported them. Mr. Fox wished me to return to work Lord Granby into taking Ireland. I replied that on your being Secretary of State or not, would depend the whole of my wishes and conduct; that I thought many people were disobliged, and still more would think well before they joined any new system under Lord Halifax or George Grenville; that your getting the rank of Secretary of State and other reasons made it advisable for you to come into employment though with such unpleasant colleagues. Was you out of the question, I would carry all the force I could to Hayes, but you and you only should be my standard. I don't find Lord Bute said any more of you than Mr. Fox had told you. Will Lord Bute stay in the summer or no? I rather guess not, and that Lord Halifax will have the Treasury. You will be Secretary of State I take for granted, but you should know, and very many matters should be so maturely weighed, that when these changes come forth, a plausible system at least should appear with them. The Torys I will suppose mean to stay at Court, but what will all those others do, who are passing between Court and Opposition, and won't the latter gain great strength by the new supposed Ministers' insincerity and indiscretion. Adieu, my dear Lord. I am sorry Mr. Fox is not to be Minister. That would have done. The next best thing would be to give Lord Waldegrave the Treasury. This, I doubt, Lord Bute won't do. With our hold on Lord Northumberland, is it possible to think of placing him as a great Lord, with Oswald his Chancellor, at the head of the Treasury, either for some short time, or till you could take it?"[1]
Fox having renounced the Treasury, and finding it
- ↑ Calcraft to Shelburne, March 15th, 1763.
