entirely to Lord Hardwicke, to turn the unpopularity from his son-in-law, Lord Anson. It is not surprising that a Ministry composed like that which succeeded should soon give way. The Duke of Newcastle and all the Whig families—the Princess of Wales and the heir-apparent—Mr. Pitt with the city and the cry of the people—all against them, the King old and timid and incapable of preference during his whole life.[1] Besides, Mr. Fox had neither courage nor elevation of mind; he had sunk under the first panick which prevailed very generally on the loss of Minorca, and thought and called Mr. Pitt a madman for taking the Government, which he was persuaded for a long time would burst for want of success in his hands.[2] Mr. Pitt, in the course of the negotiation which preceded his return to Ministry took a step which surprised everybody. He was apprehensive that Lord Hardwicke and the Duke of Newcastle misrepresented what he said in the Closet, which made him take the sudden resolution, after one of his conferences, to take the part of driving directly to Lady Yarmouth and telling her all that passed, requesting that she would tell the King the truth. This ripened the negociation and laid the foundation of cordial support in an important quarter, which he ever after cultivated by every means possible, and went so far as to pronounce a publick eulogium upon the virtues of the Countess of Yarmouth in the House of Commons. In the first of these changes Mr. Pitt told me that the King took a resolution to do nothing. When the Ministers went into him he would neither say Yes or No nor sign anything. He said nobody could compel him, and that he did not
- ↑ In November 1755 Pitt had been dismissed from office by Newcastle at the bidding of the King. In November 1756 the Duke found it impossible to carry on the Government any longer, and resigned the Treasury, leaving his colleagues in the lurch. The Administration of the Duke of Devonshire, with Pitt as Secretary of State, then succeeded, and lasted until the dismissal of Pitt in April 1757. An "Inter-ministerium" of seven weeks followed. After an attempt by Lord Waldegrave, Lord Granville, and Fox to form an Administration, and other equally unsuccessful combinations, the Duke of Newcastle returned to power, with Pitt as Secretary of State, on the Z7th of June 1757. Lord Granville, who had become Lord President in 1751, continued to ho!d that office. Fox accepted the office of Paymaster, but without a seat in the Cabinet.
- ↑ When he took office with the Duke of Devonshire in November 1756. See Horace Walpole, Memoirs of the Reign of George II., ii, 259.
