you return it to me. I suppose Rigby will have no objection to put on paper what he said to the Duke of Bedford on this subject.
[Enclosure.]
"Lord Shelburne sent Rigby to him to acquaint him that Lord Bute wished him to form a plan of Government, to take the Treasury himself, and have any associates except ; that Lord Bute would weaken any administration, and he would therefore retire from London; that upon this he had attempted to bring Mr. Pitt, who had declined, as totally united with the Duke of Newcastle and the Opposition.[1]
Calcraft replied: "In my conversation with Lord Gower and Rigby I obeyed as implicitly as possible, your orders to commit nobody; nor did I. Who I was understood to speak from, they most probably guess; but not a single word of Lord Bute's unpopularity did I mention, or that he would retire from London. Thorough satisfaction of his not interfering was, as you may remember, expressed. Rigby's letter to the Duke of Bedford put the refusal on the union with the Duke of Newcastle to prevent his Grace's[2] flying out, if His Majesty should choose to employ Mr. Pitt without him, though no report of any such junction was made. I am sorry to find misunderstanding where I thought it impossible, and am sure I have most faithfully reported what literally passed from time to time."[3]
Meanwhile the negotiation with Pitt had met with as little success. If Bedford proscribed Bute, Pitt proscribed Bedford. Bute was under the impression that the Treasury would be left at the Royal disposition, but Pitt had only said that Newcastle should not have it.
"I found," writes Bute to Shelburne, "my report received with great surprise, and 'Every man is to be dismissed who had a hand in the peace' often repeated.
