brought the paper to me, but thought he had no authority to part with a copy. I desired he would get leave to make a copy. Mr. Jenkinson's name having been mentioned, I was afraid that old prejudice might revive; at any rate a name less connected with party would be much preferable; in case such a name should occur to him, I chose to see him. From Lord Gower I learnt that he had refused to join Lord North in opposing the peace, that he had dissuaded Lord North from the measure, and that the friends who had lately been consulted were, Mr. Edmund Burke, Mr. Keene, Mr. Charles Townshend and Mr. George North; in short the people who were to profit by the intended coalition. He told me too that the Duke of Richmond was very much against it."
After thus describing what had passed, the King suddenly said: "I have been thinking of a measure which it is my determination to use, if nothing better can be done. It is to go to the House of Lords, and to deliver a speech which, without assistance or communication anywhere, I have composed. It purports, that by most interested and selfish views of some men, and the want of zeal or public spirit of others, I found myself unable to make up an Administration, in place of the one whose demerit was the making a peace which the state of public affairs had rendered necessary, comprehending the Courts of France and Spain; asks your advice, and declares it to be my unalterable resolution, never to consent to such a change of councils, so obtruded on me." "I conceive," writes Lord Ashburton, "that it was meant to convey the idea which he owned very fully in conversation, that if an Administration was to be so formed, it must be settled with his son. I represented to him the hopelessness of the measure, as there were none very much inclined to support it in the House; said I preferred a minister to a speech. If he could get anybody to take it up, I recommended leaving out the intemperate part at the conclusion of what he had prepared to take as an unexampled step. He urged repeatedly his wish to
