held out little hope that any negotiation which he could set on foot would prove successful, and it was only after many hesitations that with Grafton he conveyed to the Great Commoner the message of the King that he was willing once more to summon him to his councils. The message was verbal, as the King considered sending it in writing to be extremely dangerous.[1] On its receipt Pitt hastened to town in order to give Shelburne a full account of what had passed relative to it. "The earlier," he writes to him on January 20th, "I can have the pleasure of seeing you the more satisfactory to my impatient wishes of conferring with the person I hold most essential to any good for this country." An interview accordingly took place that same evening at which they settled the terms on which they would join the Ministry, but these terms were most unpalatable to Rockingham and his friends. Although no precise record is preserved, there can be no doubt from what had just passed that the repeal of the Stamp Act, the abandonment of the projected Declaratory Bill, and the exclusion of the Duke of Newcastle were the main points insisted on.[2] The negotiation at once broke down. "I have seen Lord Rockingham," writes Pitt to Shelburne, the day after their interview, "and am informed that His Majesty does not judge proper upon the report of my answers to have any further proceeding in the matter."[3]
The Ministry, once more left to themselves again, fell into internal disputes. The King at once took advantage of the position to intrigue for the dismissal of those of his advisers who were most decidedly for the repeal, to which Newcastle, Rockingham, and Dartmouth had at last frankly committed themselves, while Hardwicke, the Chancellor, Barrington, and Charles Yorke were opposed to it. Finally, a common ground was found in the
- ↑ Memoirs of the Marquis of Rockingham, i. 271, where the word is "answer." It should be "message."
- ↑ It is important to note that the debate on the introduction of the Bill for repealing the Stamp Act in the House of Commons was on February 21st, as given in Walpole, Memoirs of the Reign of George III., ii. 296, and not on January 21st, as stated in the Parliamentary History, whence the error has crept into many other books. For further details as to the negotiation between Pitt and Rockingham see Bancroft, v. ch. 24, and the authorities there quoted.
- ↑ Pitt to Shelburne, February 1766.
