the former supporters of Lord North with those of Lord Rockingham led by Burke, though on this occasion Fox and Sir George Savile were not found voting with their usual friends.[1] There were also a variety of differences relative to Court appointments, with reference to which Shelburne wished to humour the King, for he had discovered that the latter, if treated by his Ministers with deference on small matters which concerned his personal position, was willing to support them in the large measures which they wished to propose to Parliament. The Whigs however were determined to fill the Court entirely with the members of their own connection, and to make the King as much a slave in his own palace as he had been in the time of George Grenville, of whose visits he about this time assured Shelburne he had a most disagreeable recollection.[2]
It is however possible that notwithstanding these various causes of offence a rupture between the two sections of the Cabinet, who were popularly compared to Hanoverians and Hessians in the same camp,[3] might have been avoided, had it not been for the negotiations with America and the belligerent powers in Europe.
