and some Whig peer, such as Lord Fitzwilliam, of sufficient eminence to render the association with him of Oswald impossible, might be appointed in his place.[1] Fox, at the moment that this communication reached him, was already in a humour but too inclined to take offence. Since the first formation of the Cabinet he had expected to rule supreme over it. "His advice however prevailed less often than might have been expected from talents so superior," and as it appears that it was the opinion of Shelburne which was preferred to his, he never ceased complaining of what he called the "aggressions" of the latter. Shelburne on the other hand complained bitterly of "the hasty mode of proceeding of Fox, who, as he freely told both Grafton and Camden, had the intention of forcing on a rupture.[2] "I do not choose," the King said, "to harbour ungrounded suspicions, but it has the appearance as if the many grievances broached were meant to offend Lord Shelburne, and perhaps have thrown him off his guard; but I know he is too well aware of their arts to be ever surprised by them."[3]
Every Cabinet made the differences between the two Secretaries of State more marked. Their colleagues vainly endeavoured, by protests and advice impartially tendered to both, to stave off the final separation, which they began to see was inevitable. Such was the condition of the Ministry when the letter of Grenville arrived. Fox immediately replied by asking for further proofs of the "duplicity of conduct" of Shelburne. "I have taken upon me," he writes, "to show your letter to Lord Rockingham and Lord John Cavendish, who are all as full of indignation at its contents as one might reasonably expect honest men to be. We are now perfectly resolved to come to an explanation upon the business, if it is possible so to do without betraying any confidence reposed in me by you, or in you by others. The two principal points which occur are the paper relative to Canada, of
